Business North November 2021

68 | Supply chain disruption through to ‘end of 2020’ COSCO SHIPPING line runs four international service loops with vessels up to 4500TEU. SHIPPING COSCO Shipping Lines (New Zealand) Providing Container Depot Support to Shipping Lines MetroBox and Specialised Group Level 3, Woburn House, 40 Bloom eld Terrace, Lower Hutt, 5010 P (04) 913 3030 E Info@pinnacle-corp.co.nz W pinnacle-corp.co.nz Based in Wellington, Pinnacle Corporation supports the wider group with specialist expertise in: Shipping Container Repair and Maintenance • Empty Container Storage MPI Approved Decontamination and Wash • Refrigeration Engineering Services Transport Services • Diesel Engineering Services Proud Service Provider to Cosco New Zealand M ark Scott, General Manager of COSCO Shipping Lines New Zealand says while New Zealand’s supply chain was already under some strain pre-COVID, it was generally well balanced between import and export cargo flows. While imports usually peaked in the second half of the year the busy export season was in the first part of the year. As consumers look for alternatives to the travel they once enjoyed the demand for imported goods has increased. “The demand for imported retail and con- sumer goods as well as building materials is now almost year round,” says Mark. “The flow and patterns of well established seasonal demand are no longer happening and you have this import clash with the export volumes at peak times. There’s quite a finely balanced supply chain in New Zealand and the patterns have been broken. We’re running at a very high level most of the time.” Mark says the demand for inbound cargo is global, and New Zealand’s exports have increased as other countries look for more of our products. “In New Zealand, just like any other country, the container terminals are severely congest- ed at the moment and running at absolute capacity. That impacts on productivity and delays the vessels. “We have one of our service loops with a normal round trip of around 42 days, but with delays in New Zealand and Asia that has now gone out to well over 60 days. So if you’re slower doing a round trip, you are achieving a much lesser number of sailings in a year. That has been cutting capacity, when demand is higher.” The issue of congestion, lower productivity, less sailings and less space creates even great- er demand that continues to feed the ongoing cycle and disruption to the supply chain. “The only way out of it is to increase produc- tivity or a drop in demand, and demand is not going away,” says Mark. “The current situation will run to at least the end of 2022. But what is good to see is that many of the participants in the supply chain, including importers and exporter are realising this isn’t a short-term is- sue and are making really good improvements to the way things are done to minimise the effects on their business. They’re taking things into their own hands and working with other parts of the supply chain to look at where they could make even small changes that will make a big difference long term.” COSCO Shipping Lines New Zealand has just celebrated its 30th anniversary of officially operating in New Zealand. With offices based in Auckland and Christchurch and employing a team of forty staff, mostly Auckland based, the shipping line runs four international service loops with vessels of various sizes up to 4500TEU. The services call regularly into hubs in Ja- pan, South Korea, China, Singapore, Malaysia and from there connections to a wide range of destinations including Europe and the Middle East. “Our core customers are importers and exporters with some domestic cargo around the country as well. New Zealand has good cargo volumes in both directions and many countries don’t have that balance. There’s a strong import demand as we don’t manufac- ture too many consumer goods and we have a very strong export market including timber, a variety of dry goods plus refrigerated and food products that run year round.” T Richard Loader