Ports of Auckland, the country’s largest import terminal, said cargoes are moving well at the moment but that could change in coming weeks if customers aren’t able to receive goods, either because they are shut or because their own depots are full.
“What we want to ensure is that goods keep moving off the wharves,” spokesman Matt Ball told BusinessDesk.
“If certain warehouses or distribution centres close because they are not considered essential, that’s where you could get a blockage,” he said.
Government officials have been scrambling this week to try and ensure as many people as possible stay at home to make the covid-19 lockdown as effective as possible, while ensuring that essential food, health and other supplies can keep being produced and delivered.
But definitions of what constitutes essential services have changed from day to day, while the necessary supporting linkages – in terms of suppliers to those essential providers – have also been missed at times.
Road Transport Forum chief executive Nick Leggett said restricting the movement of non-essential freight risks a “port pile-up” in which exports and essential imports could be delayed.
He said all freight – including imports and exports – has to keep moving to ensure depots keep clearing containers, ships can be emptied and loaded, and emptied import containers filled with exports and re-shipped.
“The government needs to understand that all freight needs to move during this time,” he said in a statement. “Even by the end of this week, some ports will be struggling.”
Ports around the country vary in terms of their rail links and their ability to access nearby storage yards. Many are also weighted more heavily to exports than imports or vice versa.
Some export cargoes – even of products declared essential by their destination government – are now being held up as they don’t meet this country’s definition of essential products.
Port of Tauranga, the country’s largest, said it is prioritising essential cargoes for delivery from its yards by rail; non-essential containers will be block stacked for collection later.
Proper categorisation of cargoes will be important as once those non-essential containers are stacked they could be there “for the foreseeable future,” communications manager Rochelle Lockley said.
Ports of Auckland’s Ball said its focus is on moving cargo and it doesn’t want to have to decide what is essential and what is not.
Cargo levels, after declining during the China shutdown, are roughly back to normal although they may fall away in coming weeks as importers cancel orders.
But he said the port is expecting about 3,000 containers this weekend and it’s not clear whether that will be an issue.
“It just depends how many of those boxes can be taken off the port. At the moment it’s not 100 percent clear.”
Ball said the Ministry of Transport’s guidelines are clear that non-essential freight can be moved to make way for essential cargoes.
The problem will start further down the supply chain, he said. For example, if a company that is shut has room for only 10 containers in its yard and that is now full, where does the next consignment go?
Another likely issue will be with goods imported by firms that have now gone out of business. Ball said Auckland is already dealing with a “small” number of containers in that situation.
Ball said the lockdown is new territory for everyone. And while blockages won’t be an issue tomorrow, he said the port was trying to think ahead.
“We need to work through these issues as they arise and before they become critical,” he said. “We’re all learning through this.”
–BusinessDesk
