Singh is one small player in a perfect storm engulfing supply chains across the globe and particularly our region. Ports of Auckland (POAL) unload the equivalent of two-thirds of a Constantinos P container-load every day, but ships are still waiting an average of nine days at sea thanks to port issues around staffing, automation and an influx of goods. The Constantinos P is stretching Northport s facilities to the brink including using up half of the port s available berths and forcing drivers like Singh to spend hours twiddling their thumbs waiting for containers to be offloaded. Port of Tauranga is another alternative, but after more ships skipped the wait in Auckland by docking there the influx of traffic is causing congestion problems.
But exporters said the same thing often happened overseas.
For example, a ship heading for Australia could be diverted between Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, requiring slow and costly land transit of goods back to their original destination.
Horticulture Export Authority chief executive Simon Hegarty said the problem was even more widespread than that. There is a significant amount of congestion for shipping around the world, he said. In New Zealand, Australia and Asia, vessels are not able to berth and unload their cargo because of a traffic jam at ports. The whole thing has dominoed into a major disruption of cargo flows around the world.
The freight chaos that has plagued Northland is often replicated overseas, according to exporters.
Police teams are stopping trucks that are going south from Whangārei to make sure they re not over the weight limits.
Photo: RNZ / Simon Rogers
This brings huge costs to New Zealand producers, and some horticultural exports have been ruined by delay.
The problem in New Zealand stemmed from the diversion of a ship from the crowded Auckland port to Whangārei, which required a convoy of trucks to get containers back south.
This caused delay and expense.
But exporters said the same thing often happened overseas.