About 40 container ships have missed their schedule calls at Napier Port in the past eight months, a spokesperson for the port said. Photo / Paul Taylor
About 40 container ships have missed their schedule calls at Napier Port in the past eight months, a spokesperson for the port said. Photo / Paul Taylor
Increasingly unreliable shipping schedules and a lack of refrigerated containers is causing headaches for the export industry in Hawke's Bay.
About 40 container ships have missed their scheduled calls at Napier Port in the past eight months.
Additionally, Napier Port has received six unscheduled calls to primarily discharge empty containersfor the region's seasonal exports - which typically peak February to August - and 23 unscheduled calls in bulk shipping due to strong markets in logs and oil products.
While a Napier Port spokesperson said the six unscheduled calls discharging empties and 23 unscheduled bulk calls were a "positive thing" and the extra vessels helped "mitigate" the 40 vessels that didn't arrive, transport manager for Everfresh Ltd, Nick Agnew, described it as a "real nightmare".
He said issues with the shipping schedule became more apparent in February, right as the busy period began ramping up.
Much of the container work they do is seasonal, loading up to 70 containers a day or 300 a week with produce for export.
Agnew said export containers only had a small a window to get the container on before the vessel sailed.
"Often what we've been seeing is, we are going to prepare to load containers the following day and the shipping line has decided it won't be in port for anther three days.
Just on Monday morning two vessels bound for Napier Port changed their plans, meaning containers preloaded on trucks ready to go to pack houses had to be "de-hired" and new work found for the trucks.
Agnew said shipping schedules seemed to be "forever changing" and were increasingly "unreliable".
While the containers eventually get to where they needed to go, what used to be the easiest part of the planning was now "impossible", he said.
"There's a lot of sitting around waiting. There's a lot of down time."
He said Covid-19 was the main driver, but staff shortages at places like the Ports of Auckland were also a contributing factor.
"All the exporters have had a pretty tough time this year. Whether this is the new normal, I hope not. We are just hoping it will improve for next year."
Murray Tait, of Te Mata Exports, was equally frustrated by the "high degree of uncertainty" from an unreliable shipping schedule and a lack of available refrigerated containers.
He said it had "snowballed" from delays at the Ports of Auckland. "The schedules are out of whack. It's created huge issues."
A smaller exporter, Te Mata Exports packs between 40 to 50 containers a week - mostly filled with apples.
The delays meant people were holding more inventory than they normally would with a focus on clearing that backlog and getting products to market before the harvest season in the Northern Hemisphere got under way.
"Everything gets to market eventually but not in the timeframe we want."
After a challenging harvest and packing season due to ongoing labour woes, he said this was an additional problem they didn't need to have.
Unreliable shipping schedules and a lack of refrigerated containers are causing big headaches for the transport and export industries. Photo / Paul Taylor
He wasn't worried about rotting fruit though, adding it was being well-maintained in cold storage.
"I think the disappointing part of it is this part of the supply chain shouldn't be what it is."
Tait expected packing to continue over the next three weeks and shipping another six to eight weeks.
A Napier Port spokesperson said the volatility had arisen from the ongoing challenges in global shipping, with New Zealand effectively being at the tail end of those interruptions
"While the issue of congestion is not new, the unpredictability and frequency of schedule changes we are witnessing lately has increased and is adding extra pressure to all parties.
"This is an issue we are all confronted with – customers, ports, shippers, carriers and agents – and there is no single solution to resolving this burden in the short term."
Napier Port had the capacity to "act as a relief valve" for other ports during their peak season, with room for more ship calls and great import volumes, the spokesperson said.
"We robustly investigated this with shipping lines and others, but there just wasn't an adequate domestic supply chain solution to transport import volume back north.
"We could have provided a lot more relief if an efficient, accessible supply chain was in place."
The spokesperson said Napier Port had been lobbying the Government for a national supply chain strategy for this reason.
"A more streamlined and resilient supply chain would reduce waste across the national network and allow for greater utilisation of resources.
"In addition to a coordinated focus on landside infrastructure, better support for coastal shipping would also need to be part of any wider supply chain solutions."
The spokesperson acknowledged it had been a challenging period.
It was also a difficult season for Shane Williams of Ovation, who said the flexibility offered by Napier Port had been a big help.
Likewise, John Bostock, of Bostock New Zealand, commended the level of operational transparency the port had offered to his logistics and planning teams throughout the peak season.
