Buffalo

New Zealand’s government has upheld cabotage laws that require coastal shipping to be conducted by vessels that are flagged in the country and crewed by its nationals. The decision has received praise from the Maritime Union of New Zealand(MUN) and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF). The disagreement began when the company Holcim, which is a supplier of cement and its derivative products, applied for an exception to the cabotage laws. Holcim has been operating the “Buffalo” since 2016, but decided to sell it to the Swiss cement carrier NovaAlgoma due to the vessel being costly and inefficient to operate, in addition to the upcoming $4.6 million in repair costs. Holcim also contracted the NovaAlgoma to operate its service with the smaller 'NACC Vega' (IMO: 9486336), which is Panamanian-flagged and is crewed by foreign nationals. The foreign flag and crew violated cabotage laws in New Zealand, and hence Holsim requested a waiver for the new vessel. Cabotage laws regulate domestic and coastal shipping, mandating that ships operating between ports in the same country be flagged in that country and be crewed by its nationals. New Zealand’s Associate Minister of Transport upheld the cabotage laws, citing that the requested waivers were only granted for special journeys and for single voyages, not as a longer-term solution. Unions, including MUN and the ITF, have lauded the government’s decision to protect local jobs and would have set a dangerous precedent should it have accepted the proposal.