Pacific Shipping

In Ng, They're Moving

Over To Unitisation

Unit cargoes —well-packed consignments of about one ton i pallets—and sideloaders —conventional freighters with big cut vay sections on their decksides to cope with speedy loading and i-loading by forklifts—add up to animation, a fact of life on apua-New Guinea’s wharves these days.

Unitisation —the Islands’ answer containerisation —has made a K)d deal of progress in P-NG over e past two years.

And P-NG is not the only Islands rritory to use unitisation—the ethod has been implemented, on a lall scale, in the Solomon Islands, lands shippers predict it won’t be ng before the pallets and their ac impanying forklift carriers appear a big way in the New Hebrides, ew Caledonia and Fiji, The principal reason for this is at Islands shipping competition has come so intense in recent years at modernisation of age-old cargo mdling methods was essential.

In P-NG, for instance, tonnages msferred through the ports of Lae, abaul and Port Moresby have eatly increased, and competition is increased among the four major ippers to NG—Australia-West icific Line, Burns Philp, China avigation and Karlander New uinea Line.

Nearly 10 new freighters, includ g several featuring complete cargo litisation and side-loading facilities vorth well over $1 million), have «n introduced by these companies nee 1966.

Invested $lOO,OOO plus

All claim they are carrying full or :arly full loads from Australia most the time. BP’s certainly doesn’t >minate the P-NG trade as it did the 1930’s and 1940’5, but the firm irries 30 per cent, or better. AWPL lips carry very close to this per :ntage, and China Navigation, with wer ships than BP’s and AWPL n a return Australia-NG run hough with several on “through” sian runs), holds about 20 per cent.

or better of the market.

Karlander, with six small vessels, has about 20 per cent, of the mar ket. This company plans to introduce unitisation later this year.

BP’s, AWPL and China Naviga tion have invested sums well over $lOO,OOO in either chartering side loading ships, refurbishing their ships to take unit cargo, or modernising wharf-handling facilities.

China Navigation, which intro duced its sideloader Papuan Chief in mid-1967 on a Sydney-Brisbane- Moresby trip, introduced a similar sideloader on a Sydney-Brisbane- Lae-Madang-Rabaul run a year later.

When BP’s chartered the success ful Papuan Chief in March ( PIM, Apr., p. 101), China Navigation in troduced another sideloader, Coral Chief, on its fast Moresby run.

Now China Navigation has an 18day turnabout to Moresby and a 21-day swing to Lae, Madang and Rabaul. At training schools at the main NG ports more than 100 New Guinean fork-lift drivers have been trained and 18 New Guineans are now employed as crew on the Coral Chief.

Like China Navigation BP’s has modernised its NG fleet—in order to cut costs and to become more com petitive.

BP’s has sold its Malekula and Bulolo, rehashed its schedules by dropping out many small ports (such as Bougainville plantation surf-boat calls), introduced two chartered ves sels ( Marsina and Sira) and installed side-loading facilities on its four year-old, 4,000-ton Moresby.

Now BP’s offers unit-loading faci lities on most of its ships except on its 2,600-ton Tulagi (which only

makes one NG call—Kieta—every 12 weeks) and Sira.

The 5,867-ton flag ship Braeside is about 60 per cent, unitised, the 4,000-ton Montoro is 80-90 per cent, unitised, the sideloader Moresby is 80-90 per cent, unitised and the Marsina (formerly China Naviga tion’s Papuan Chief) is a 90 per cent, unitised sideloader.

No overtime

BP’s Island Shipping Manager, Mr.

Arthur Lloyd, said unit cargoes were saving BP’s money. He pointed out that stevedores can now load or off load ships without doing overtime.

AWPL’s seven vessels all offer unit loading to exporters and importers in Australia and NG. With its $150,000 freight terminal opened last year at Lae, the company is modernising its services and ships.

An eighth ship— Ninos —will be introduced by AWPL in July. At about the same time experiments will be started with five to 10-ton “flat” loaders to see whether they can replace the one-ton pallets cur rently used by most shippers.

AWPL hopes that bigger loads will mean bigger cargoes and quicker handling.

To recover business

Karlander, with six vessels, has been calling at ports varying from Vanimo, on NG’s north-west coast, to Gizo in the Western Solomons.

In June, the company will introduce its first unitised ship in an effort to

;cover some business lost recently > other lines offering units.

Shippers say that units have been boon to Australia-NG shipping and and Customs agents agree, not quite as enthusiastically, hina Navigation’s and BP’s side >aders discharge up to three times uster than conventional ships at NG orts.

Unitisation has revitalised shipping perations by slashing overall de very times and by considerably re ucing loading times in ports, es scially at Moresby and Lae. And ilferage and loss have been reduced jcause securely-bound cargoes have sen handled by machines.

Fnh Buys Two Inter

Land Traders

CFNH, wholly-owned subsidiary I the biggest French trader and upper in Melanesia, Etablisssements allande, has bought two inter land vessels for well over $lOO,OOO > that it will be able to take a igger share of trading and copra irrying in the New Hebrides and so improve services among its many ading stores and plantations in the >ndominium. The vessels are the aulmarkson and the Matipo.

New Hebrides copra production Lis year is expected to be good, •ound the 40,000 tons mark, and FNH hopes to take a big share f the profits by shipping the copra > the main ports of Vila and uganville.

Less than a month after buying ic 396-ton trader Paulmarkson from ►cal shipowner, Captain Athol usden, in April ( PIM, May, p. [)3), CFNH bought another of usden’s ships, the 197-ton Matipo, >r an undisclosed sum.

The Matipo, which made news last sar when it was stranded on a reef ff Noumea, New Caledonia, for ;veral months, was recently insured ith London brokers for $NZ60,500 nd Captain Rusden had spent at :ast another SNZS,OOO on her before le Noumea mishap.

CFNH was expected to take elivery of Matipo at Whangerei, IZ, in May, and sail her, with a lebridean crew, direct to Vila.

CFNF has renamed Paulmarkson fter a late director of its Noumea ased parent company. It’s now Jenry Bonnaud.

The company’s major competitor, iurns Philp (New Hebrides) Ltd., as two similar-size inter-island ■aders Manutai and Konanda another former Captain Rusden essel).

After selling two of his vessels,

Matipo and Paulmarkson, NZ-born Captain Rusden bought the 21-year old 600-ton Fiji trader Ratanui from Burns Philp (South Sea) Co. Ltd. for an undisclosed sum.

For BP’s, Ratanui had been sail ing out of Suva for the past 13 years, working as a general carrier and trader in Fiji waters, Tonga, the Cooks and Western Samoa. Captain Rusden’s plans for her include opera tions in the Islands and NZ, Ratanui's sale was handled through ship-brokers, Captain W. L. Kennedy Pty. Ltd.

"Pacific Islander's" Last

Trip To Us Trust Territory

The trader Pacific Islander, a familiar sight in the Mariana, Mar shall and Caroline Islands, under took her last trip in the US Trust Territory in May before being re turned by her owners, Micronesian Interocean Line, to the territory government in Saipan for scrap.

MILTs immediately changed the 27-man Micronesian crew of the Islander to another of its vessels.

Hoi Kung, and repatriated Hoi Kang’s

Chinese crew. The Islander’s master, Captain Ommund Oftedal, has now taken command of the Hoi Kung and the Kung’s master, Captain Bob de Brum, was to be reassigned by MILI to another ship.

Earlier government plans to use the Islander as a merchant marine training ship are now off, but MILI hopes to develop training opportuni ties aboard the Kung and another vessel, Taipoosek.

Another "Through" Cargo

Handling Service For P-Ng?

A “through” cargo-handling service for Papua-New Guinea, similar to the W. R. Carpenter-Thomas Nation wide Transport Ltd door-to-door freighting service started in April be tween Australia and Lae, could be one of the first islands efforts of a new Sydney-based firm, International Shipping Information Service.

The cargo-handling service, de signed primarily to assist importers in Rabaul, would try to eliminate much of the red tape and form filling involved in exporting to NG from Australia, an aim of the Car penters-TNT tie-up (which, incident ally, has so far been proceeding satis factorily with the co-operation of all —not one—of the shippers to NG).

Principal of ISIS is Captain lain F, Robertson, a master mariner with extensive experience in the Islands since World War 11.

Shipping

Briefs

• Fiji’s Princess Shipping Com pany has bought the Fiji Maru No. 28, salvaged from a reef near Suva last year by McNicholl Industries (Fiji) Ltd., and will rename her Lahasa Princess and work on local inter-island services.

Princess Shipping Company’s other ship, Fijian Princess, was another salvage job. She was bought and sal vaged by the company’s managing director, Mr. Arthur Evans, off a reef near Lomaiviti about three years ago.

In May, Labasa Princess was up on the Suva slipway undergoing a survey by the Fiji Marine Depart ment before going into service about late June. • A new shipping service, be tween Hong Kong and NZ, via Manila and Fiji, was to start from Hong Kong on July 1 and be operated by NZ Unit Express, an associate firm of the NZ Shipping Company Ltd. The vessels used will be Shansi and Hupeh, two fully mechanised sideport loaders.

• Work will start in Suva shipyards before 1970 on a $94,000 sister ship to the Fiji Government landing craft Duiyabaki, and the ship is expected to be built by 1971.

Duiyabaki has been a success in Fiji waters, where she has been used variously as a commercial craft, a carrier of heavy materials and vehides and a transporter of livestock. • An investigation into cargo and stevedoring operations at Luganville Wharf in Santo, New Hebrides, has been lodged with the French and British Resident Commissioners in Vila. Changes in operations on the wharf are expected.

In April, Captain Jack Dalby, traffic manager for Fiji’s marine department ( PIM, Apr., p. 107) and Mr. Chaumont, port director of Noumea, went to Santo and carried out the investigation.

The investigation, prompted by several recent complaints about the 11-year-old French-built wharf, closely preceded a price increase of 25 per cent, from May 1 on freight carried by Burns Philp (New Hebrides) Ltd, vessels operating out of Santo.

Copra charges rose from $8 to $lO per ton and general cargo rates rose from $lO per ton to $l2 per ton.