Latest / Best of Business / Todd Dawson and Alan Piper: Napier Port CEO and KiwiRail Executive Manager of Freight Markets on the new logging train from Palmerston North to Hawke’s Bay

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Todd Dawson and Alan Piper: Napier Port CEO and KiwiRail Executive Manager of Freight Markets on the new logging train from Palmerston North to Hawke’s Bay · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from news Talks.
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  Speaker 1: So after the closure of the tonguey Wai mill in
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  Speaker 1: the Rupehu district, forestry company Earnslaw has found a way
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  Speaker 1: to sorry. Earnsall One has found a way to continue
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  Speaker 1: production and keep its contractors in work. You see the
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  Speaker 1: ERNZOI used to take the logs to the pulp and
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  Speaker 1: paper millk usually made into pulp of paper and then
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  Speaker 1: you know stuff actually ended out coming on in anyway,
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  Speaker 1: what's happened is they have struck a deal with Kiwi
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  Speaker 1: Rail and Napier Port where log trains now run five
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  Speaker 1: days a week on the Napier Palmistan North line, dropping
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  Speaker 1: off six hundred tons of unprocessed logs, but the still
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  Speaker 1: exploitable to Napier Port. In doing this, it removes twenty
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  Speaker 1: one logging trucks off the road. If you know your
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  Speaker 1: Hawk's Bay, you know that locals have long said why
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  Speaker 1: do we always have logging trucks slamming through Hastings and
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  Speaker 1: through through Napier to get to be shipped off. So
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  Speaker 1: this is a this is a good idea nape Your
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  Speaker 1: por Chief executive Officer Todd Dawson and Kiwi Roale Executive
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  Speaker 1: General Manager of Freight Markets, Alan Paper joins me. Now
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  Speaker 1: Ted and Alan, Hello.
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  Speaker 3: Killy Andrew.
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  Speaker 1: Where's the other one? Andrew? Just checking out? Had two
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  Speaker 1: of you Todd, Todd, we will we will start with
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  Speaker 1: you from Napier Port. How did this deal come to be?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, look, it's it's a great deal, and it's it's
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  Speaker 2: come about through I guess, some really good collaboration amongst
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  Speaker 2: the parties that are being involved into little one, Kiwi Rail,
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  Speaker 2: ourselves and McCarthy's transport. You know, it's a logical solution
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  Speaker 2: for for the movement of logs through the through the
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  Speaker 2: port takes as you said, you know, it takes a
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  Speaker 2: lot of trucks off the road that were damaging the
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  Speaker 2: roads and things like that too. So just a lot
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  Speaker 2: of work and and logic being applied and some good
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  Speaker 2: collaboration amongst the interested parties to make it happen, which
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  Speaker 2: is really awesome to see.
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  Speaker 1: How big a change is it though, to go from
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  Speaker 1: receiving process to process would and with timber, lumber and
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  Speaker 1: pulp to receive even big old logs at the port.
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  Speaker 2: It was a fair bit of change, a fear bit
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  Speaker 2: of change at both ends a supply chain, both up
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  Speaker 2: and Tangy Way and also at the port. In general,
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  Speaker 2: there's a lot less moving parts involved than moving the
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  Speaker 2: logs I've trained. There are more touch points in terms
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  Speaker 2: of moving logs straight out of the bush on trains
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  Speaker 2: through to the port, but versus there as you're asking
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  Speaker 2: around the pulp versus similar it's a little less complex actually,
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  Speaker 2: So it's a bit of change, but nothing that's not manageable.
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  Speaker 1: And where are the logs being shipped to? Who takes
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  Speaker 1: this stuff?
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  Speaker 2: All? The majority of New Zealand's logs in general go
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  Speaker 2: up to China, probably at not even sent them and
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  Speaker 2: go up to China, and the rest of them to
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  Speaker 2: various different parts of the world.
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  Speaker 1: Let's go to keep me well, Alan, there must have
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  Speaker 1: been a no brainer. I mean, you've got rid of tracks,
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  Speaker 1: you put them on trains.
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  Speaker 3: Y's fantastic. Look, it's going to put about the nineteen
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  Speaker 3: wagons probably up to one hundred and twenty thousand tons
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  Speaker 3: a year. That allows for the sort of break, the
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  Speaker 3: harvesting break, the cruise. The hard working crews have sort
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  Speaker 3: of December January, so we're just picking it up. We
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  Speaker 3: placed nineteen wagons today, we'll go back tomorrow. They'll be
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  Speaker 3: loaded overnight. We'll pick up nineteen tomorrow and we'll put
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  Speaker 3: another nineteen empty wagons ready for the following day. So yeah,
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  Speaker 3: we're really great to see the circuit of logs back
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  Speaker 3: on the rail networks. Fantastic And did you.
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  Speaker 1: Have enough rolling stock and also locomotives to be able
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  Speaker 1: to do it? Was it difficult making the trains available?
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  Speaker 3: No, it wasn't. We were already running trains previously up
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  Speaker 3: to Winston Polk, so it was a case of just
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  Speaker 3: putting those back into that work and we had some
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  Speaker 3: wagons that we could repurpose and for the log traffic.
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  Speaker 3: So yep, it was easy enough to do and really
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  Speaker 3: pleased to kick things off today, which is great from.
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  Speaker 1: Kerrie Rowl's point of view. How does this benefit the region?
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  Speaker 3: Well, as Todd said, we and working with Andy Watson,
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  Speaker 3: who's the mayor of the rung Atticking District Council, I
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  Speaker 3: guess the shared concern was that the logging trucks going
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  Speaker 3: over that Tai Happy Napier Road looking further ahead to
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  Speaker 3: sort of the autumn and winter next year. Everybody knew
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  Speaker 3: that that was just going to cut up the roads
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  Speaker 3: even further, even the McCarthy's as the log transporter. So
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  Speaker 3: it was really a great opportunity to get round the
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  Speaker 3: table find out a solution between ourselves. You know, McCarthy's
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  Speaker 3: tied at the port and inslall one get this moving
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  Speaker 3: and look at what it's going to do is save
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  Speaker 3: a whole lot of maintenance for the district council that
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  Speaker 3: they were very clear that they couldn't afford. So I
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  Speaker 3: think it's a great outcome around us as well as
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  Speaker 3: the public lest trucks up and down that road.
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  Speaker 1: Well done, gentlemen, on your creativity. God, can I can
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  Speaker 1: I ask you a question? Though I understand that wins
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  Speaker 1: and Peters has been stiffing around the port, I understand
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  Speaker 1: that wins and Peters believes it might be a good
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  Speaker 1: place to put the inter island. Can you confirm or
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  Speaker 1: deny that?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, look, I think there's a little bit of a
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  Speaker 2: misalignment of information there. I'm certainly not the ter know
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  Speaker 2: Naki Port is not considering taking into Isla and in
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  Speaker 2: Veranda into the point.
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  Speaker 1: It would certainly be you'd be interested in more freight
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  Speaker 1: traveling between the islands coming through your port.
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  Speaker 2: Oh for sure. I mean, we've been quite vocal about
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  Speaker 2: our views on what we think should be a solution
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  Speaker 2: for the inter islander in Wellington, and there's a lot
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  Speaker 2: of cost associated with the landside infrastructure, and you've got
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  Speaker 2: to contain a terminal site there that is well suited
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  Speaker 2: to the earthquake conditions and a lot of work already
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  Speaker 2: been done to it. So we think that actually, overall
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  Speaker 2: a lot of money could be saved for New Zealand
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  Speaker 2: if there was some decisions made about the location of
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  Speaker 2: where the Winter Island a ferry ultimately goes in Wellington?
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  Speaker 1: Is that true, Ellen, I mean, because that's the whole thing.
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  Speaker 1: The kay Farler filer down in Wellington was actually quite
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  Speaker 1: prone to the earthquakes. Is the container wharf a bit
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  Speaker 1: more solid?
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  Speaker 3: Look, I'm no engineering expert. I guess what I would
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  Speaker 3: say is I think the Minister of Finance and the
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  Speaker 3: new Minister of Rail made that comment before Christmas. It
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  Speaker 3: looked they're going to use the next two or three
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  Speaker 3: months to really work that through and come up with
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  Speaker 3: a decision later this year. So look, we just wait
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  Speaker 3: for that decision process to go through and be made public.
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  Speaker 1: Well, both of you, gentlemen, have been fantastic company. I
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  Speaker 1: thank you so much for your time today. From Napier
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  Speaker 1: Port the chief executive Officer, Todd Dawson, and from Kewi
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  Speaker 1: Round the executive General Manager of Freight Markets Alan Piper.
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