Breakthrough after port-union accord

Press, 3 May 1984, Page 2

Breakthrough after port-union accord

Lyttelton has made an important breakthrough in the handling of conventional meat, according to the Lyttelton Harbour Board’s marketing manager, Mr Peter Morgan.

In his report to the trade and commercial development committee yesterday, Mr Morgan said that the board was now able to offer a viable conventional-meat handling service for the Canterbury meat trade. At a stop-work meeting held this week, Lyttelton watersiders had unanimously agreed to accept the working of 14 containers a gang each day, or its equivalent, with the use of two meat slings working each side of the rail track, Mr Morgan said. The system was in use at Napier and was required by the Meat Board, he said. Mr Morgan said he believed that the new arrangement would remove any apprehension the Meat

Board had in using the port for the loading of conventional meat. A telex sent to the Meat Board by the Lyttelton Harbour Board said: “We believe this decision represents a major breakthrough in conventional meat productivity arrangements and is tangible evidence of the port work force’s good faith in wishing to maintain a competitive operation in this export field. “We suggest that the above solution removes your main reservation regarding the use of Lyttelton and therefore strongly recommend that at the first opportunity a vessel be scheduled into Lyttelton in order to realise the land aggregation cost benefits of using the port,” it said. Mr Morgan told the meeting that the last vessel to load meat for Iran at the port had called last year.

“The Meat Board did not get productivity for various

reasons and that is what they are after,” he said. Mr Morgan said the Meat Board and the shipping companies concerned would be advised of the new arrangement with the aim of persuading them to make another trial shipment of Iranian meat through Lyttelton. Coal trade The joint proposal by the New Zealand Railways Corporation and the board on improved handling methods of West Coast coal will be submitted to the Minister of Energy, Mr Birch, in several weeks, Mr Morgan said. The proposal was expected to show significant joint cost savings in the transport and loading of up to 500,000 tonnes of coal a year from the mine to the ship, he said. The corporation and the board intended to publicise their proposals later this month.