Carrier beats Strait costs

Press, 10 April 1979, Page 1

Carrier beats Strait costs

A North Island fertiliser company has decided to cut high freight costs across Cook Strait by using a Norwegian bulk carrier to deliver phosphate to a new factory at Nelson for South Island distribution.

The company, Olin Corporation (N.Z.), Ltd, of Napier, has had a representative in Christchurch checking distribution outlets.

He said that freight savings would be passed on to consumers by eliminating excessive internal transport costs and sea-freight charges by the Railways across Cook Strait.

Another important factor, he said, was that delivery could be guaranteed because of the specialised handling of bulk cargoes offered by Jebsens, the Norwegian shipping company. Jebsens runs an inter-

national guaranteed stockpiling system. A contractual service keeps stockpiles up to a certain level throughout the transaction. Olin previously handled all its New Zealand distribution from Napier, but has found it cheaper to establish the factory at Nelson and use an over-seas-registered vessel to bring the bulk phosphate to Nelson. The Jebsen carrier Sealnes is expected to arrive at Nelson at the end of this month with about 4000 tonnes of ammoniaphosphate fertiliser from Pasadena, California. The fertiliser is used in New Zealand in cropping and horticulture.

A factory at Nelson owned by W. L. Lowry and Son will be used for South Island distribution, as a joint venture.

He said that he foresaw similar moves by other North Island industries.