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Chapter 2Stevedoring productivityStevedoring productivity in this chapter refers to the productivity of movingcontainers from the ship to the wharf by the stevedoring companies at the five majorcity ports in Australia. These ports are Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide andFremantle. These measures of productivity are the crane rate, the vessel working rateand the ship rate. The crane rate is essentially the number of containers a docksidecrane operator lifts on or off a container ship in an hour. The vessel working rate is ameasure of the productivity of the stevedorers who are involved on board a containership in the process of loading and unloading containers. The ship rate is rate at whicha ship is unloaded and is the crane rate multiplied by crane intensity. The way thesemeasures are derived by the stevedoring companies is covered in Appendix B.ResultsNational crane rate productivity, as measured by the five port average, was 26.5containers per hour in the September quarter 2007 (1.9 per cent lower than theSeptember quarter 2006 rate of 27.0). In the December quarter 2007, the crane rateincreased to 27.2 containers per hour (1.7 per cent higher than the December quarter2006 rate of 26.8).Table 2.1 presents the June quarter 2006 to December quarter 2007 indicators ofstevedoring productivity at the five major Australian container ports, expressed incontainer moves per hour. Figures 2.1 to 2.6 present these data over the June quarter1996 to December quarter 2007 period. The data are weighted averages of responsesfrom stevedores operating at the respective container terminals.In summary:• the five–port average crane rate (average productivity per crane while the shipis worked) was 27.0 in the March quarter 2007, 27.2 in the June quarter 2007, 26.5in the September quarter 2007, and 27.2 containers per hour for the Decemberquarter 2007• the five port total of container moves increased from 950 996 in the Septemberquarter 2007 to 1 027 779 moves in the December quarter 2007. The data for theDecember quarter 2007 is up 11.3 per cent on the December quarter 2006 figure• the five–port average vessel working rate (productivity per ship based on the timelabour is aboard the ship) was 36.7 in the March quarter 2007, 37.4 in the Junequarter 2007, 37.7 in the September quarter 2007, and 38.4 containers per hourin the December quarter 2007. The December quarter 2007 rate was 6.4 per centgreater than the December quarter 2006 rate.17