The log ship Himawari K in Dunedin’s upper harbour Leith wharf. Photo: Gerard O'Brien.
The log ship Himawari K in Dunedin’s upper harbour Leith wharf. Photo: Gerard O'Brien.
Logging exports from Dunedin during the past weeks have been "heavy", with trucks, marshalling yards and ship-loading operations approaching capacity at Dunedin and Port Chalmers.
Two vessels, the Himawari K in Dunedin's upper harbour and African Alke at Port Chalmers, on its maiden visit, were in Dunedin for much of last week, loading more than 55,000 tonnes of logs for export, mainly for delivery to China and other Asian destinations, including Korea and a small number to India.
The Himawari K was understood to have departed with about 37,000 tonnes of logs, having left the upper harbour to be "topped up" from Port Chalmers, while the African Alke was loaded at Port Chalmers with about 19,000 tonnes.
The log ship African Alke at Port Chalmers on its maiden visit last week. Photo: Gerard O'Brien.
Port Otago commercial manager Peter Brown said having two to three vessels in at any one time was not unusual now, but log operations around yards had been "very heavy" during the past week.
"Marshalling operations in Dunedin and Port Chalmers have done an excellent job handling the increasing capacity, while the footprint [of land available] had not increased," he said when contacted.
Two years ago Port Otago handled a record 840,000 tonnes of logs and 812,000 last year, with Mr Brown predicting a "similar" tonnage for the current financial year.
"Exporting has more than doubled on five to seven years ago and been sustained. That's sustainable into the future," he said.
Logs-measuring company C3 has been "flat out" since moving its operations from Port Chalmers to Sturdee St in Dunedin about a month ago, evidenced by the numerous trucks queuing on Ward St to enter its drive-through yard.
C3 had been Australian-owned, but was recently purchased by Canadian interests and has operations covering New Zealand's 13 ports.
C3 Port Manager for Otago and Southland Mark Henderson said the market in Asia for logs at present was "very buoyant".
Its operations involve "scaling" logs, which arrive on trucks with the length and number known, then C3 measures the diameter to determine the usable volume of timber, for each individual log.
The log ship African Alke at Port Chalmers on its maiden visit last week. Photo: Gerard O'Brien.
New technology, apps and individual bar-coding all play a part in streamlining the scaling process, with only minimal time spent on the logging trucks by staff; who are suspended over the trailer decks on hydraulic gantries. Mr Henderson echoed the observations of Mr Brown, in that two years ago China had built up large inventories of logs, which had oversupplied the market at the time, but the economic giant had now resumed buying, but at a more "balanced" rate.
"Scaling is done for our New Zealand customers who can then market the volume overseas to their customers," Mr Henderson said.
On only its second day of operation at Sturdee St, C3 had 155 logging trucks through its yard.
Mr Henderson said the more usual average was 90-100 trucks per day, with an average 50-60 logs per load taking about 5-6 minutes to scan into the system.
C3 have six staff doing 12 hours days at Sturdee St, plus three working at Port Chalmers and when logging ships are in port, they have 36 people working each shift to load logs.
Mr Brown said log loading for the past two months was "considerably" higher than at the corresponding time last year.
The past mild winter saw more felling than usual, he said.
