Covid-19 ship ban puts Nelson marine engineering jobs at risk

Tuesday, 2 June 2020

Nelson marine engineering company Aimex is pleased a ship it hoped to work work on will be able to berth in Nelson despite Covid-19 rules. Video first published in June 2020.

Dozens of marine engineering jobs in Nelson are at risk over a Government policy to refuse entry to ships during the Covid-19 pandemic, delivering a hammer blow to the international repair and refit industry.

Aimex Service Group managing director Steve Sullivan said about 40 jobs were under threat at the Port Nelson-based company he founded in 2009.

'Forty per cent of our revenue comes from the international refit business,' Sullivan said. 'It's all under threat.'

Two major contracts were cancelled just before the alert level 4 lockdown, leading to a loss of about $4 million to the wider Nelson economy, Sullivan said.

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Steve Sullivan says he's angry the Government has given exceptions to 'glamour industries' such as the filmmakers of Avatar but not his marine engineering company, which employs more than 100 people.

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Four staff at Aimex had been laid off.

'We … will have to put more people out of work if the policy does not change,' Sullivan said, referring to the 40 jobs at risk.

A scene from the movie Avatar, which was filmed in New Zealand.

Both he and Nelson MP Dr Nick Smith urged the Government to lift the blanket ban and consider the entry of each ship on a case-by-case basis.

The catalyst for prompting Sullivan to speak out publicly was the Government refusal to allow entry to the Captain Vincent Gann, a tuna boat now at sea in the eastern Pacific and in need of urgent repair.

Aimex Service Group general manager Simon Lavery, left, Nelson MP Dr Nick Smith and Aimex managing director-founder Steve Sullivan discuss the future of the Port Nelson-based marine and industrial engineering business.

A fault with the Captain Vincent Gann's reduction gear that provides propulsion meant it was able to travel at half its usual speed only. It was also at risk of further damage. The repair work was expected to take about six weeks and would deliver about $600,000 to the wider Nelson economy – $400,000 to Aimex and $200,000 to associated businesses.

The Captain Vincent Gann's last port of call was American Samoa, which had no reported cases of Covid-19 and had closed its borders in late March.

TNL International shipping agent John Lowden said the American-owned Captain Vincent Gann had been fishing out of Pago Pago for the past 18 months.

'The crew has been at sea since … 15th May and by the time it gets down here, they would have been at sea for a month,' Lowden said. 'They don't pose any threat at all.'

Nelson MP Dr Nick Smith is calling for a more flexible approach to assessing the Covid-19 risk on a case-by-case basis.

Sullivan said the crew members could easily be tested for Covid-19 and were prepared to be quarantined on arrival, if necessary.

In 2019, the Captain Vincent Gann underwent an Aimex-led refit that pumped $6.5m into the Nelson economy.

'The American fleet has been coming here since 1992 and they value the work that these guys do down here and the workmanship,' Lowden said.

However, the repair to the Captain Vincent Gann was needed 'sooner rather than later' so it might have to go elsewhere if it did not get the nod for Nelson.

Sullivan said the Government had given entry exceptions to 'glamour industries' such as the filmmakers of Avatar 'but refuses to budge on ours'.

'I am particularly angry that Government officials in MBIE [Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment] advised that this boat should be sent to Hawaii for the repairs with no regard for the jobs in Nelson,' he said. 'We invite the Minister of Customs and Immigration to visit Port Nelson and explain to the workers why they should lose their jobs.'

Sullivan said he had an inquiry on Tuesday 'from another vessel out of Australia, which is going through the same process that we're going through with the CVG'.

Aimex had grown from eight staff members to more than 100 over the past 10 years, many of whom were highly skilled and would not be easy to replace.

Smith said blanket bans were appropriate two months ago during the emergency phase of the Covid-19 pandemic.

'We now need a more flexible approach that assesses risk on a case-by-case basis that is focused on saving jobs,” he said.

It made 'no sense' to refuse entry to the Captain Vincent Gann.

“Nelson has suffered a body blow with the loss of aviation engineering jobs at our airport,' Smith said. 'The last thing we need is also losing marine engineering jobs at the port.”

When questioned by Smith in Parliament on the matter, Customs Minister Jenny Salesa said she stood by the Government's response to Covid-19.

The decisions about which kinds of craft were allowed entry was 'focused on our actions to deal with Covid-19', she said.

One of the reasons for the border closure 'is to protect New Zealand people's lives and we take that advice from the Director General of Health and from the Ministry of Health'.

'In terms of lifting or changing that particular policy, it would be a decision by Cabinet,' Salesa said.