More industry figures have spoken out about safety risks and stalled imports due to cargo delays from the Ports of Auckland.
Christmas shopping in Wellington. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
Congestion this week at the Ports of Auckland caused major delays to freight and forced a large container ship to head to Northport near Whangarei for unloading tomorrow.
That means an extra 13,000 containers and twice as many truck trips this month on the already busy State Highway One route back to Auckland.
The route has poor roads, including known black spots in the Dome Valley and the Brynderwyns, said David Aitken, head of the National Road Carriers association. That gave him significant concerns about safety.
Fashion designer and retailer Trelise Cooper said the delays are a serious blow in the lead up to Christmas.
A container of her Christmas- related products that was due to arrive in November is sitting on a ship that may not be able to dock until at least mid-December. She hoped to get them on the shelves as quickly as possible, but wasn't sure when that would be.
"This year we've done dog bowls, we've done tea towels, and aprons and table runners - all for a New Zealand summer, and a New Zealand Christmas, and I don't think we're going to get them before Christmas."
Her company had switched to air freighting supplies in, to get them as quickly as possible.
The backlog at the port is caused largely by Covid-19 affecting the international supply chain, as well as a robotic fault.
Yesterday National Transport Forum spokesperson Nick Leggett told Checkpoint the problem was wider than just one port, and a big picture look at the congestion problems was needed, with the pandemic adding pressure to the mix.
One of his biggest concerns was that ships delayed from unloading might could be unprepared to wait, and would depart without unloading.
"There are imports on that ship, but it's also those ships that take our exports away as well. This is critical for New Zealand - we are at the bottom of the world, at the bottom of the supply chain - we are easy to miss off.
"This is symptomatic of a major problem and New Zealand does need to get a grip of it."
Leggett said the extra costs for freight to be sent from Whangarei, instead of Auckland, would end up passed on to consumers.