COSTLY DELAYS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27232, 8 November 1949, Page 6

COSTLY DELAYS

SHIP’S TURN-ROUND

OVER 42 DAYS TO UNLOAD UNFAVOURABLE COMPARISON While there were instances where cargoes were handled expeditiously, and a ship was promptly turned-round, there were, many others m the opposite category, stated Captain H. Johnson, master of the 10,000-ton cargo steamer City of Calcutta, during his recent visit to Port Chalmers. He had then been 42 days on the New Zealand coast unloading portion of a 7000ton cargo which had occupied eight days and one night to load. The cargo, a large portion of which was bagged linseed and newsprint, was loaded at three ports on the St. Lawrence, Canada. Steaming time between ports was included in the period mentioned, he added. It took much longer to load cargo than to discharge it. Captain Johnson said, as it had to De properly stored. After 42 days in the Dominion he still had over 1000 tons to discharge at Lyttelton before leaving for Australia, where he had about 6000 tons of cargo to unload.

He admitted that much of the trouble in the Dominion was due to a shortage of labour, and again, delays resulted from the fact that wharf sheds were usually crammed with merchandise, and there was no space available into which he could unload. Some of his cargo was newsprint, and when it was raining he could not dump it on to open wharves. In one instance, space was so congested he had to arrange for motor trucks to take the cargo away. ,

It was high time, he said, that all those who were associated with the waterfront industry realised that wasted time meant higher import costs and higher prices to the consumer. In the final analysis the public paid.

If too much time was wasted in the turn-round of a ship, it only meant that shipping companies had to raise freights. They could not operate at a loss. In the head office of his company in Britain there were 300 employees alone. These had to be paid. Overseas agents had to be paid, and also ship’s crews. And the ships themselves had to eam all this money. Ships being built to-day had more modern equipment and were faster than those of a decade ago. What was the use of building to cut down the time occupied by a voyage when, after reasonably speedy loading, delays were experienced at this end? One cancelled out the other. Captain Johnson said he had not been to Port Chalmers for 10 years, but the handling of cargo to-day was no better than it was then.