The Anatoki arriving at Whanganui Port in 2023. Photo / NZME
The only cargo vessel using Whanganui Port has been taken out of service.
The Anatoki, operated by Coastal Bulk Shipping, first berthed in Whanganui in April 2008.
Port chairman Mark Petersen said the company had approached the port about using its much larger Rangitata vessel.
“That would require significant extra dredging,” he said.
“We are currently looking at that as an option to see whether it’s viable for the port and that the revenue is sufficient to cover the cost of bringing it in.”
Coastal Bulk Shipping brought the Rangitata to New Zealand from Turkey in 2022.
It is 67m long and 12.4m wide, about 16m longer and 4m wider than the Anatoki.
The company confirmed to the Chronicle the Anatoki had ceased trading but did not respond to interview requests.
Former Coast Bulk Shipping general manager Doug Smith told the Chronicle the Anatoki “punched well above its weight”.
“That’s in terms of a small ship operating in New Zealand conditions,” he said.
“Financially, it was only marginal, but it proved a lot of aspects about what could be done and what the potential for future shipping might look like.”
He said it could be unloaded with an excavator, “every town’s got one somewhere”, instead of using traditional port infrastructure such as cranes.
The Anatoki, built in Japan in 1992, was the only freight ship of its kind operating in New Zealand, he said.
“It sort of sat in the middle, between large coastal shipping and inshore vessels.”
There was a future for that ship type but they needed to be bigger, he said.
“She could carry 800 tonnes of heavy cargo, like a load of dolomite, but grain and urea, we’d only get about 640 tonnes.
“You really need to be up at 900 tonnes of light cargo and 1200 of heavy cargo.”
He said the Anatoki did not take much southbound cargo from Whanganui, with the vessel mostly leaving empty.
“That was always a bit disappointing, that Whanganui people didn’t take up the opportunity to move freight directly through the port.”
Those decisions were always financially driven.
However, events such as the 2016
Kaikōura Earthquake, which damaged roads and rail lines, showed there needed to be an alternative to Just-in-Time (JiT) logistics, he said.
JiT is a logistics system where goods are delivered exactly when required, instead of being stockpiled.
Petersen told the Whanganui District Council’s council-controlled organisations and economic growth committee this month that maritime safety advice on the Rangitata was provided to the port when the vessel first arrived in the country.
“We are just revisiting that work now and it will be completed over the next six or so weeks.”
The council oversees the port and is responsible for its redevelopment.
An independent review of the entire project is underway, due to extra costs, dredging issues and health and safety risks.
Petersen said if the Rangitata used the port, it would arrive every six weeks and bring 2000 tonnes of freight each visit.
His report to the committee said the Anatoki’s reduced service meant port operating income was $114,000 below budget for the financial year to March 31.
Income was $72,680 against a budgeted $187,500.
Budgeted income for the entire year was $250,000.
“The challenge for us will be in being able to turn the [Rangitata] around in the harbour basin,” he said.
“We will have to dredge a much wider area of the port.”
Petersen said he expected to have an outcome with Coastal Bulk Shipping before the committee’s next meeting in June.
Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily Whanganui District Council.