20/10/2022

Dear Customer,

 

We would like to keep you informed of the latest situation concerning Auckland’s shipping supply-chain.
 
Ports of Auckland
Currently Ports of Auckland are prioritising the berthing of some vessels before others, which means that importers may face up to 14 days of delay in vessel berthing.

This morning, there were 8 container vessels at anchor off the North Shore! The Port is still struggling with staffing since they abandoned their automation plans.

As the roles for which they need staff are specialised (and potentially dangerous) and we are facing a general labour shortage anyway, New Zealand is not flush with new candidates. We don’t expect the situation to improve quickly.

 
Empty Container Depots
With fewer and infrequent sailings calling Auckland and Tauranga, depots have become inundated with empty containers.
Importers, desperate to avoid container detention charges being applied by the Lines, pre-book the slot for dehire of their import empties (every de-hire or on-hire must have a slot booked in advance – currently 48 hours plus).

 

However this means that exporters are unable to collect an empty for loading because there are zero slots available! You would expect that priority slots would be provided to exporters in order to alleviate the congestion constraints, however there is only a general ‘pool’ of slots to which all importers and exporters apply.

Shipping Lines struggle to call the shots with the depots, especially because a full depot and daily ‘per container’ storage means there little incentive to change.

   

Port of Tauranga
Although it tends to escape media attention compared to Ports of Auckland, Tauranga Port is also struggling to process vessels and despatch containers.

Unsurprisingly the main issue is in the movement of containers from Tauranga to Metroport Auckland, by rail. Again, we are talking around two weeks to have containers arrive into Auckland, and this is at times with priority applied.

To add to the problem we have received notification yesterday that due to KiwiRail’s Block of Line maintenance program, the already congested rail service which is railing containers between Port of Tauranga and Auckland Metroport will not be operating from 12.01am Thursday 20^th of October to 12.01am Tuesday 25^th of October. That’s 5 days of NO RAIL!

This is Phase 2 of the upgrade to tracks that took place earlier this year.

• Both mains impassable
• Thursday – All Services cancelled
• Friday – All Services cancelled
• Saturday – All Services cancelled
• Sunday -– All Services cancelled
• Monday – All Services cancelled

 
KiwiRail has advised there will be an additional 3 trains per week to alleviate the backlog. Unfortunately 3 extra trains will only scrape the surface of the problem and the reality is also that Auckland empty container depots will be unable to receive most of the empties being unpacked next week.

For any urgently required containers, we strongly suggest trucking the container(s) to Auckland as the backlog may take some time to clear.
 
We are currently looking at a shipping situation similar to the darkest days of the COVID-19 outbreak, with little hope of change on the horizon.

Please be assured we’re dealing with fractures in the supply-chain and we will continue to do everything we can to minimise disruption and resultant costs.

 

Keeping You Informed!

 

BR International

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