C&amp&semicolan#38&semicolanS loses major Queensland meat contracts

<p>C&#38S Shipping’s palletised reefer service between Queensland and the US has been thrown into uncertainty again after both Australia Meat Holdings and Teys Bros decided not to renew contracts.</p> <p>C&#38S’s remaining major meat exporter customer, the Nippon Meat Packers, owned by Thomas Borthwick &#38 Sons, ships only relatively small volumes from Mackay on the service.</p> <p>C&#38S and its principal, NYK Lauritzen Cool, were not available for comment and have not made any official announcements on the future of the service. </p> <p>Both AMH and Teys have confirmed they will now rail meat south to Brisbane for export to the US. </p> <p>This will probably represent at least 50,000 tonnes of product a year and certainly more, if Borthwick follows suit. </p> <p>Teys Bros alone could be looking at switching about 25,000 tonnes of meat to QR this year.</p> <p>Trade sources said they believed the extra meat volume on the market would put pressure on the available reefer container space.</p> <p>All is not lost for C&#38S, as it may well be able to make a comeback in the 2007 season. </p> <p>The C&#38S business has focused on carrying meat from northern Queensland ports to its east coast US port of Wilmington. </p> <p>It appears that recent mergers and changes to container shipping services were part of the reason Teys Bros decided not to renew its FMC-regulated contract to the US for the 2006 calendar year. </p> <p>AMH apparently decided that without Teys Bros’ volumes it was unable to support the C&#38S service.</p> <p>Teys Bros has meatworks in Innisfail, Rockhampton, Biloela, as well as Beenleigh on Brisbane’s outskirts. The three northern plants will rail product to Brisbane. </p> <p>AMH has northern plants in Townsville and Rockhampton.</p> <p>Kim McBride, general manager of logistics with Teys Bros, attributed the move to the changing shape of shipping lines post-mergers and new alliances, especially the impact of Maersk’s takeover of P&#38O Nedlloyd.</p> <p>&#8220The whole game has changed,&#8221 he said. &#8220The different players, even the existing players, have found themselves with new toys. Everybody in the exporter&#47import chain has to reassess where they sit, because the chain has changed.&#8221</p> <p>Rumours had been circulating for some time about the future of the north Queensland meat volumes, especially since C&#38S threatened to pull out in mid-2004.</p> <p>It appears that the cost of the new shipping arrangements, including the railed component, will not be appreciably different from the overall C&#38S pricing.</p> <p>A source claims that higher bunker adjustment factors charged by C&#38S were hurting the exporters more than anything.</p> <p>Meat exporters are also hoping that QR’s infrastructure can cope with the extra freight.</p> <p>However, QR has reportedly told an exporter that it has made an additional 90 powered reefer slots available this year. </p> <br />