Battle over Northport capacity heats up after port shuts down on Saturday afternoon

Sunday, 13 December 2020

Northport is hitting back against claims that the port had unexpectedly stopped operations and was turning back trucks.

On Saturday, the National Road Carriers Association issued an advisory warning on social media that Northport, located at Marsden Point, was ceasing container operations immediately.

The advisory said if trucks were close to the front of the queue, they might be serviced but the majority would be turned away.

The association said they were informed by the port that it had burnt through its resources and would cease operations until Monday.

Shipping containers have been shuffled around the country as New Zealand’s main ports struggle to cope with congestion. (file photo)

* Why State Highway 1 between Auckland and Whangārei could be clogged with trucks from Friday

* Fire at Northland port: Nine emergency trucks control blaze

* Safety fears over 2700 truck trips from giant container ship in Northland to Auckland

However, Northport spokesman Peter Heath said the association’s claims were “demonstrably untrue, unfair and agenda-laden”.

Heath said the company had issued an advisory on December 9, warning the company would stop work at 3pm on Saturday afternoon before resuming operations on Monday.

Northport’s forklift drivers have reached their maximum number of working hours under the company’s fatigue management policy, a separate advisory sent on December 12 said.

The extra work related to the unloading of container ship Constantinos P, which had been unable to berth at the Ports of Auckland.

The ship, run by ANL Container Lines, was originally scheduled to stop at Auckland's port on December 5 but congestion relating to the Covid-19 impact globally and a lack of staff meant the date was delayed to December 22.

Once fully unloaded, there was set to be 2680 extra truck trips on the road due to the ship’s diversion.

Northport chief executive Jon Moore said the port’s staff had been “absolute heroes” pulling long hours to get the job done.

“As we said at the outset, we have ample space for the containers in our storage area but placement so that individual containers can easily be reached by our container-handling equipment has been, and continues to be, a logistical challenge,” Moore said.

“As has the marshalling of the many trucks arriving to collect the containers. Many of these have been wanting to take a specific box away with them and this has added to the complexity of the operation.”

Northport would be turning its attention back to its regular operations which all but stopped this week while the Constantinos P was being unloaded, Moore said.

New Zealand’s ports have struggled to cope with congestion issues in the post Covid-19 period.

Congestion has become so bad that some shipping lines have introduced a surcharge on cargo passing through Ports of Auckland, on top of shipping rates that are sometimes several times higher than usual.

There are a number of reasons for the backlog, including a Covid-19 related delay in a major automation project at the Ports of Auckland and a struggle to get the right staff to man the port's eight cranes.

Demand for consumer goods has also increased 20 to 25 per cent compared to last year.

Reduced shipping to New Zealand meant there was also a shortage of empty shipping containers needed for exporters to get goods out of the country.

National Road Carriers Association chief executive David Aitken has been approached for comment.