Timaru, Nelson, will feel loss of ship

Press, 30 December 1982, Page 1

Timaru, Nelson, will feel loss of ship

Timaru and Nelson are expected to be hardest hit by the decision announced yesterday. by Coastal Shipping, Ltd, to withdraw its motor vessel Onehunga from service.

The service, started in December, 1981, was between Onehunga, New Plymouth, Nelson, Timaru, and Lyttelton, carrying conventtional cargo and up to 22 containers as deck cargo. The company’s managing director, Mr T. McNicholl, said that the company was withdrawing because the service was not economically viable. The withdrawal will leave Timaru without any coastal service, while the port of Nelson will not have to rely on the Union Company's

Union Nelson, which is a container ship. Lyttelton will be better off because as well as being served by the Union Nelson, it also has the almost weekly service of the Shipping Corporation’s Coastal Trader. The director of the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association, Mr I. D. Howell, said last evening that the withdrawal of the service was a sign of the tight business conditions which had led to a decline in total cargo between the North Island and South Island.

Mr Howell said that while at present the Railways Corporation, which took over 70 per cent of Canterbury's cargo to the North Island, as well as the coastal and air services provided a good ser-

vice, the big problem would come when the’ economy picked up. "Then there could be delays and insufficient capacity to meet business demand,” he said.

Another concern was that with less competition freight costs could rise.

The Nelson reporter of “The Press” wrote recently that Coastal Shipping, Ltd, had been offering reductions in freight accounts of 15 per cent and other incentives to entice customers.

The 36 crew of the Onehunga were given redundancy notices yesterday. The ship last called at Lyttelton just before Christmas, and it is at present laid up, but no date has been given for its withdrawal.