Lyttelton, Auckland choice of Soviets

Press, 11 October 1988, Page 1

Lyttelton, Auckland choice of Soviets

By

DAVE WILSON

The Soviet Union favours Lyttelton or Auckland as a service base for its fishing vessels.

Mr Boris Krotkov, information officer at the Soviet Embassy in Wellington, said yesterday that the right to service ships in New Zealand and to fly crews here was keenly sought by his Government.

He said in Christchurch that such a deal would be extremely lucrative for New Zealand.

Ideally, the Aeroflot charter flights would land at an airport near the ship-servicing facility. This requirement favoured Christchurch or Auckland, he said.

A Government-to-Government agreement had not been signed, nor had the New Zealand Government formally acceded to the Soviet Union’s request to use Aeroflot aircraft between the Soviet Union and New Zealand for crew exchanges. Technic Group, Ltd, a New Plymouth company, announced last week-end that it had signed an agreement to represent the Soviet Union in setting up and

running a ship-servicing facility in New Zealand. Mr John Matthews, chairman of Technic, said yesterday that his company had no specific port in mind for the contract. “There has been a general examination of port facilities but a detailed examination depends on whether formal Government agreements are worked out,” Mr Matthews said.

“Whatever port facility is chosen must have available an infrastructure of skills. These include mechanical engineering, hydraulics, refrigeration, air conditioning, electrics and electronics, gauge-testing, sandblasting and spraypainting. “There must also be available the facilities to handle, or space to build facilities to handle, about 100 vessels a year. These are quite big ships, 2000 to 5000 tons each,” Mr Matthews said. Mr Krotkov said a New Zealand facility would help Soviet fishing in the Pacific. “Our deep-sea fishing fleet has between 100 and 120 vessels working, each ship with 70 to 80 crew members, and these people need to return home every six

months,” Mr Krotkov said. "Our ships also need bunkering, food and repairs. In the Pacific we use repair facilities and change crews in the United States and Singapore, but it would be more convenient to use New Zealand.” Mr Krotkov said crew changeovers in New Zealand at present required replacement crews sailing from the Soviet Union, whereas Aeroflot had charter landing rights to fly fresh crews to the United States and Singapore.

“We want to be able to charter Aeroflot aeroplanes to come to New Zealand several times a year, with perhaps 300 replacement crew members on each flight,” Mr Krotkov said. The general manager of the Lyttelton Port Company, Mr lan Brokenshire, said his company would work with other interested parties to put a submission to the Government recommending Lyttelton as the Soviet service base. He said the port had previously done some work for the Soviet Union, mainly because of the availability of its dry dock.