NIWA_Tangaroa
Benefits of shipping:
Resilience for natural disasters or emergencies.
NIWA_Kaharoa
Ships carry hazardous / dangerous cargo more safely than road, rail and air.
Moana_Chief_with_tugs
15% of New Zealand's inter-regional freight is carried by sea
Moana_Chief_with_cargo
Ships can handle oversized, heavy and bulky cargo that road, rail and air can't.
Matuku_2016
Freight volumes are forecast to increase 50% by 2040.
It won't all fit onto our roads!
Kokako_2017_leaving_Korean_shipyard
New Zealand’s total freight task: 278.7 million tonnes.
Coastal shipping carries approx 10 million tonnes (3.5%).
Interislander_Aratere_and_Kaitaki
1.15m people are transported across the Cook Strait every year
Interislander_Arahura_in_Sounds
The volume of domestic freight moved by shipping has increased 50% over the last 10 years.
Holcim_Buffalo_2019-11-04
Approx $28 billion road and rail freight is shipped between the North and South Islands each year
Holcim_Buffalo_2020
1 standard container Auckland to Christchurch:
road: $2200-$3000
rail: $1300 - $1900
ship: $850 - $1300
Chatham_2
418,470 containers are moved around the NZ coast per annum
Chatham_1
Shipping: one-eighth the emissions of road per tonne of freight moved
Bluebridge_Straitsman_2019_3
Benefits of shipping:
Lower emissions per tonne of freight moved.
BlueBridge_Straitsman_2019_1
Increasing total freight carried by ship by just 2% would reduce total transport emissions by 16%.
Anatoki_2016_at_Whanganui_Bar
Benefits of shipping:
Greater control over our domestic supply chains.
Anatoki_2016_03_15_Loading_Fuel_for_Chatham_Island
Shipping: 60% the emissions of rail per tonne of freight moved
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Evaluating the opportunity to transition to a low carbon freight transport system (2023)

This document is independent research commissioned by Swire Shipping and conducted by the Electric Power Engineering Centre at the University of Canterbury, evaluating the opportunity to engineer transition to a low carbon freight transport system in New Zealand.

The research includes analysis of New Zealand-specific emissions by key commodities, with energy use and greenhouse gas emissions estimated across all freight transportation modes (Road, Rail, and Coastal Shipping).

Considering all the emission sources investigated, the research finds that road emissions are between 2.4 and 2.7 times higher than rail, and between 5 and 5.6 times larger than coastal shipping emissions.

The research finds that a shift of inter-island “general” road freight movements to coastal shipping can potentially increase ship utilisation from 70% to 90%, leading to an annual reduction of 161.7 kt CO2, which represents approximately 5.1% of direct heavy freight carbon emissions.

(Available on the NZSF website with permission by Swire Shipping)

Read the document: