Crises hit Auckland port causing diversions and delays for customers
Friday, 28 September 2018
Port of Auckland is hoping to get back to a more regular schedule by the middle of next week but says there may be challenging issues for the next 18 months.
According to port spokesman Matt Ball there has been a string of events combining to create delays and congestion with some ships diverted to Tauranga.
They include the peak export season coinciding with a tight labour market, fickle weather for ships, the port's longer term automation programme and the distracting public debate over expansion.
A culminating event was a fatal accident in August resulted in the port closing the container terminal for several days, and subsequent slower handling for safety reasons.
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Importers and exporters have contacted Stuff about their delays in receiving or dispatching freight.
Mainfreight recently sent an advice notice to clients saying the constraints currently being experienced will remain until Christmas.
Logistics company Mondiale also told clients about straddle driver cautiousness and yard congestion.
The port company cited restricted yard capacity as a consequence of building work in preparation for automation to come on stream in late 2019.
The port company said it had been accepting ships as they arrived rather than sticking to berth schedules, but it would attempt to revert to schedules next week.
Tight labour supply and management of fatigue in the team working the docks was another factor, Ball said.
The port had waived fees for leaving empty containers longer than usual given the difficult supply circumstances.
But the longer term issues with the automation programme would continue for about 18 months.
It involves introducing robots to carry out some of the straddle crane manoeuvring which would double capacity and save wages with disestablishment of about 50 jobs.
Auckland port general manager commercial relations Craig Sain's latest update to customers gives detailed instructions about moving containers and ship bookings.
'We have managed to relieve pressure on the berth by only committing a maximum of three cranes during day and two cranes during night time operations thereby diverting any remaining resource to the road, rail and yard operations to ensure a more consistent flow of containers through the terminal.
'We have also managed to divert a vessel to help relieve the yard congestion and whilst unfortunate, another larger import vessel has been diverted to Tauranga at the end of this week which will assist the state of the yard over this weekend enabling us to focus again with the carrier community to keep moving containers out of the port.
'Over the last several days we have seen a lift in our average crane rates and yard utilisation dropping which is a positive sign of congestion reducing and operations improving.
'If we can maintain this momentum then we would estimate that by middle of next week we will be seriously reviewing reinstatement of the berth windows [shipping schedules].
'There has been some shipping line network changes announced and others in the final stages of sign off, that will change the berth schedule profile over the next several weeks and should offer some further relief to the peaking demand on the terminal, both for ship side and land side operations. We expect that this will help, and also estimate that by the end of November the import peak will start to drop away.
'This last several weeks have been very challenging for everyone, and we are starting to see the impacts as consumers. It has highlighted the fragility of New Zealand's supply chain in general.
'There is not a lot of redundant capacity available to cater for sustained events such as we have seen, and the ripple effects of the peaking volume, delayed vessel schedules including diversions and re-routing of cargo will now start to impact further up and down the supply chain and create congestion in other areas such as other ports and hubs, empty depots and distribution centres.
'We are encouraging cargo owners, including carriers, to proactively engage with lines regarding container detention periods as this will now start to bite as containers are returned back to depots which we know in the Auckland region are under space pressure,' Sain said.