Larger Vessels Make A NZ Dry Dock Vital

Larger Vessels Make A NZ Dry Dock A Vital Part of Transport Infrastructure ‘At Least As Important As Any Bridge On SH1’

INSIGHTS ABOUT THE NEWS - The needs of the shipping industry have been overlooked among a flurry of multibillion-dollar pledges to plug transport infrastructure deficits as the election approaches.

NZ Shipping Federation Executive Director Annabel Young says “dry dock facilities located in NZ are a vital part of transport infrastructure, at least as important as any bridge on State Highway 1.”

As reported in trans-Tasman’s sister publication, NZ Transport Intelligence Business Alert, Young says federation members want a floating dry dock as soon as possible and it could be installed for only $60m to $80m. This would depend on how much a port company was prepared to invest in aspects such as infrastructure on land. The port could regain its investment through port charges.

The demand for a floating dry dock in NZ is due to the increasing size of SOLAS vessels (i.e. commercial ships) working on the NZ coast, and the demands imposed by MPI on visiting vessels.

The largest NZ dry dock in Devonport is too small to take any new NZ Navy vessels and most of the SOLAS vessels operating on the NZ coast (such as the three Interislander and two Blue Bridge ferries and two Silver Fern tankers). These vessels must now go to Singapore or Sydney, which gives priority to the Aust Navy, for scheduled maintenance or emergency repairs.

With the global downturn in shipping, a new or used floating dry dock could be bought for a good price.

A floating NZ dry dock would save vessel operators money, time and reduce emissions. The return voyage to Singapore costs about $500,000 in fuel and has the ferries and tankers losing revenue for operating services for at least the month it takes them to sail there and back.

In addition, a local floating dry dock would be used for in-water inspections and in-water cleaning and give MPI a tool to deal with vessels which enter NZ waters with dirty hulls. The limited in-water cleaning options now mean if such vessels are large, they must be sent elsewhere.

Young says for technical reasons the most likely location for a new NZ dry dock is Shakespeare Bay in Picton. The federation would expect the dock to be a private asset owned and operated by a company with expertise in marine servicing.

Meanwhile, Port of Tauranga chairman David Pilkington says the ongoing restructuring in the shipping line sector will be accelerated by the move to larger vessels. However, he fears investment capital will be wasted if all NZ’s container ports try to cater for big container ships.

Pilkington says “a hierarchy of fewer hub ports, supported by second-tier feeder ports connected by coastal shipping, is unquestionably the way of the future for NZ. The sums of capital required to accommodate bigger ships, the aggregation of sufficient cargo, as well as the transport infrastructure to move it, is clearly not affordable across all of NZ’s current container ports.”

New services from Maersk, Hamburg Sud and Seatrade, and the larger vessels being used by the shipping lines, had a significant impact on cargo volumes in the year for PoT which reported strong growth in all the largest cargo categories.

The trend to larger ships calling only in Tauranga is reflected the in number of containers trans-shipped (transferred from one ship to another), an increase of 31.0% to 245,896 TEUs.

PoT CEO Mark Cairns says this is evidence of the inevitable paradigm shift toward a hub and feeder port network in NZ.

Trans Tasman’s sister publication, The New Zealand Transport Intelligence Business Alert, is a weekly source providing you with in-depth news, analysis and opinion on NZ’s transport and logistics sectors.

ENDS

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