OPOTIKI transport operator Charlie Seymour has 50 trucks parked up during a logging industry downturn caused by many in the Chinese construction industry laying down tools following the Coronavirus outbreak.
It is also the Chinese New Year, which has seen construction sites shut down.
As time marches on, truckies are feeling the pinch.
“It’s been going on for two weeks and it’s unlikely to get sorted in the next two weeks,” Mr Seymour said.
“People are hurting.”
Mr Seymour said many of his drivers and sub-contractors had families and were living week-to-week.
“Several of the drivers have also used up their holidays during our Christmas and New Year,” he said.
“We do not want to lose our drivers.”
The Gisborne area was particularly bad, with the port stopping shipping logs to China for a period.
“There are lots of people hurting over there,” Mr Seymour said.
“I understand there’s a big stockpile of logs sitting in the ports in China.”
With Seymours Transport Services trucks from Mount Maunganui to Wairoa parked up, Mr Seymour said he had been trying to find other jobs for the drivers.
“No one can tell us how long this will last,” he said.
Williams and Wilshier managing director Warwick Wilshier said that with the uncertainty around the impacts of coronavirus in China and the extended Chinese New Year break, the decision was made by most forest owners and managers in the Gisborne region to cease harvesting temporarily on Monday, February 2.
“The port stayed open until Wednesday night and we all took Friday off,” he said.
“Many companies have now decided to resume production, be it at a reduced level, but some have decided to stop.”
Mr Wilshier said that everyone was concerned about the effect on contractors and their workers.
“Even though export log prices are dropping, they are trying to keep the industry moving,” he said,
The website for the Eastland Port in Gisborne shows that although no ships were listed on the shipping schedule for Wednesday, traffic was resuming today, Thursday.
“The port is open and ships are being loaded,” Mr Wilshier said.
“Forests furthest from the port will be most affected due to high transport costs, but that’s the nature of a region whose industry is most reliant on one market.”
Mr Wilshier said it was too early to assess how long the downturn would affect Gisborne.
“There is a lot of work going on behind the scene to support people,” he said.
Te Kaha Log Haulage owner Gail Keepa said she was getting her truck serviced during the stoppage.
“We’re riding the storm again – hopefully it’s short lived,” she said.
“New Zealand is too dependent on China.”
A Whakatane-based cartage contactor who did not want to be named said China was a main importer of New Zealand timber, so this had especially affected the Gisborne area.
“We have been extremely lucky, being part of the corporate industry in the central North Island, which has slowed but not to the same extent as in the other areas of the North Island.
“Our biggest concern at the moment is the high fire risk, all harvesting in our area currently stops at 1pm daily.”
Hancock Forest Management general manager Kerry Ellem said he couldn’t comment much on the situation.
“It’s an internal issue for us,” he said.
“We are still working and in the immediate term we do not see a change.”
Having reduced the harvesting slightly, the company “was continuing on at this point”.
“We don’t have any operations in Gisborne, nor way up the East Coast, where there has been lots more closures,” Mr Ellem said.
“We are less affected on this side and we don’t ship out of the port in Gisborne.”