Port has clearance to bring in vital port workers

Thursday, 4 February 2021

'Lumpy' supply chain - Ports of Auckland faces troubling times (Video from December 2020)

Immigration authorities have granted clearance to Ports of Auckland to bring in five critical workers who could help clear its massive backlog of cargo.

The critical crane operators have leave to apply for special border exemptions, which the Custom Brokers and Freight Forwarders Federation said could make a huge dent in cargo congestion at the port.

‘’With those trained crane drivers, the problem could be fixed in four to six weeks,'' the federation's president Chris Edwards said.

Ball said the port had only managed to find two skilled crane operators in the country since it began looking in October.

He said the port was already training up new drivers, but it took time. ''If they can get these guys from overseas, they can pretty much, as I understand it, start within a couple of weeks.''

* Union claims Ports of Auckland being too picky over port workers

Port delays are beginning to filter down into cost and price increases for retailers and manufacturers.

* Import waiting time reduces, but port's search for skilled staff continues**

Port spokesman Matt Ball confirmed the workers were busy applying for their visas, but they had to do it themselves and were at different stages.

''We’re helping them with as much as we can, including hiring an immigration advisor in their countries to assist with the process.

''We hope the first two will be submitted this week or early next week.’’

Since November, Ports of Auckland – the country's biggest port for imports – has had long waiting times for ships to berth because of the speed of unloading.

The port has attributed this partly to its half-completed automation project, which was stymied by the border closures, and also its shortage of skilled workers, some of whom had to return home ahead of lockdown.

Port congestion is also a global phenomenon since Covid-19 disrupted supply lines. Fewer flights have shifted more goods onto ships, driving the cost of freight skywards.

Ball said the port had only managed to find two skilled crane operators in the country since it began looking in October.

Ports of Auckland is a key entry point for cargo in New Zealand, but delays unloading and transferring cargo has created a long wait for goods.

But it had found several experienced straddle drivers within New Zealand, and was training at least 14 existing staff in the role.

''Training a straddle driver takes 3 to 4 weeks, so we can do the training reasonably quickly,’’ Ball said.

‘’By comparison, it takes around 10 weeks to train someone to a basic level as a crane driver, and then another 12 to 18 months on the job for them to become fully skilled.’’

Immigration New Zealand said border exemptions for the five operators had been requested under the ''other critical worker'' category.

The six-month visas were based on whether the skills or experience the person had were readily obtainable in New Zealand, or whether the worker was undertaking a time-critical role in specific areas.

Essential work was defined as the delivery of approved major infrastructure, a government approved event or programme, a government-to-government agreement or a project of ‘’significant wider benefit to the national or regional economy''.

Meanwhile, the widespread supply shortages and freight costs are now beginning to felt downstream, although economists are hopeful it will only prove to be a temporary cause of inflation.

An ''unprecedented'' net 71 per cent of businesses reported an increase in costs in the ANZ’s February business outlook.

The ANZ said the spike in cost and pricing intentions flagged by businesses was likely to flow on into strong price increases over the early part of this year.

But assuming the supply disruptions would be resolved over the year, it expected the Reserve Bank to discount them when weighing up inflationary pressures.