First trial for new container design

Press, 10 December 1983, Page 35

First trial for new container design

A new design of container that offers greater space for New Zealand export cargoes had its first trial in Canterbury recently when a consignment of frozen meat bound for Japan was loaded at the Kaiapoi plant of the Ashley Meat Export company.

The containers were built in Japan for the Crusader Swire Container Service, partners of the Shipping Corporation of New Zealand, Japan Lines, Ltd, by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd, in the New Zealand-Japan-Korea container service. A spokesman for the P and O Shipping company, which acts as agent for Crusader Swire, said the containers were about 10cm larger than standard containers.

The containers are fitted with Daikin machinery, each with its own power unit and a capacity of 27.7 cubic metres.

C.S.C.S. intends to produce 150 units into the service, which works from New Zealand’s four main ports. The first shipment of Canterbury lamb was loaded into the containers on November 25, at the Ashley Meat Export plant, a division of C.S. Stevens and Company, Ltd. The shipment was railed

to Port Chalmers and loaded aboard the Aotea, destined for Kobe. Japan.

The recent announcement that Lyttelton has been included as a port of call for the service will mean that future cargoes will be loaded at Lyttelton’s container terminal. The Aotea is due to make her first call at Lyttelton on December 29.

The shipping manager of C.S. Stevens, Mr F. W. Bishop, said that the new containers had proved “a big saving in freight.” The company was able to load 14 tonnes of meat into the containers, compared with an llh-tonne capacity of the old containers, he said.

The company exports about 2060 tonnes of meat annually to Japanese, French. Belgian, and West German markets.

At the Kaiapoi plant, carcasae meat is processed into consumer packs specifically prepared for the Japanese market.

Shoulders of lamb are rolled into three pieces after being deboned. Japanese consumers cook thin slices of lamb in much the same way that New Zealanders cook bacon. C.S. Stevens has been exporting meat to Japan since 1957.