Ships spend less time in N.Z. ports

Press, 2 September 1981, Page 11

Ships spend less time in N.Z. ports

PA Wellington. Conventional ships are clearing the New Zealand coast in record time, according to the Waterfront Industry Commission. Commission statistics j show that conventional ships — all ships apart from container ships and bulk carriers -- averaged 13.24 days on the coast in the four months to May 31. This was a record and 1.87 gross days better than in the previous four months. It was also the third successive four-month period in which the ship turnround had averaged fewer than 14 days. In the four months to May ' 31, overseas conventional ships made 236 voyages, six fewer than a year earlier. I The ships carried 1.17 i million tonnes of cargo, the

i highest four month total since May. 1977. Container shipments in the l four-month period totalled 85,704. 12.2 per cent more than a year ago. But the commission says the British seamen’s strike meant that some ship calls in the latest four-month period would normally have been made earlier. There were 181 container ship port calls compared with 166 a year earlier. ’ The all-ports ship ex- ! change rate of work in the > four months ended . May 31 > was 29.47 containers per i' gross ship working hour, - compared with 27.24 a year ago. r Wellington’s rate of 32.35 1 was 18.7 per cent higher than t a year ago. The other port rates were 40.59 for Port 1 Chalmers, 21.18 for Lyttelton, J and 26.17 for Auckland.