New Zealand: Border closing complicates flow of goods

John Pyman is Managing Director at a. hartrodt New Zealand based in Auckland and has been with the company for over three decades. "I have never experienced such a difficult situation as we are currently facing," he says. Yet New Zealand is one of the Corona model countries and economically is coming through the crisis relatively well. ANZ Bank New Zealand in Wellington expects gross domestic product to rise by 3.5 percent in 2021. But right now, the island nation is stuck in a recession, hitting the logistics industry hard, according to Pyman: "The disruption to shipping and airline services caused by Covid is leading to an unprecedented lack of space and record-high freight rates."

Goods imports delayed up to 30 days

New Zealand is fighting the pandemic with border closures although has recently reopened the border to Australia via a quarantine free “bubble”. As a result, there is a lack of air freight capacity, freighter services are generally only available demanding very high freight rates. Sea freight is also not working reliably – Pyman reports problems at New Zealand’s two most important ports: "In Auckland and Tauranga, container ships have been waiting up to two weeks for berths and imported goods can be delayed by up to 30 days from arriving in country to final delivery."

Christchurch office handles wine exports

Since 1975, a. hartrodt has its own company in New Zealand. Today, 19 people work in Auckland, (North Island) and six in Christchurch (South Island). The company's own 1,800 square meter warehouse in Auckland offers 600 pallet spaces and breakbulk floor areas. Export Buyers Consols for sea freight and air freight consolidations are built there. One focus is on Food & Beverage: "The Christchurch office handles the largest portion of our wine exports as it is located near the major wine growing regions in Marlborough and Central Otago," Pyman explains.

In sea freight, the LCL offerings include weekly groupage containers to Auckland from Hamburg, Hong Kong, Sydney and Melbourne. There are also weekly air freight consols from Frankfurt, Sydney and Melbourne. "We are doing our very best to keep the flow of goods moving for our customers under extremely trying circumstances," assures Pyman.