Late in September a convoy of four 380 Integrity boats departed the factory by road to for shipping to Australia. Three consigned to Brisbane, Queensland and one consigned to Perth, Western Australia.
Whilst it’s was an impressive visual to have four Integrity’s in a single road convoy, it was a massive undertaking by the factory and the shipping and road transport companies to coordinate and was a first of this magnitude for Integrity Boats Australia.
Shipping worldwide has been at a premium for the past 18 months with demand for shipping outstripping capacity and despite everyone’s best endeavours, it’s become challenging to provide timely services to dealers and customers. The extreme demand for container space has forced Integrity (and most other pleasure craft manufactures) completely off container ships and for the immediate future have been relegated to utilising bulk cargo ships. A single 380 Integrity will displace a minimum of 12 TEU or “Twenty Equipment Unit” or 12 x 20ft container from the ships carrying capacity and they simply refuse to accept any bulk cargo. Fortunately, bulk cargo ships have always been an alternative, however their services are less frequent than container ships, ports more random and transit times longer due to extended unloading times in each port of call.
Fortunately, it’s predicted the worldwide demand on container movements will normalise over the coming 12 months and our shipping agents predict the current service and exorbitant costs issues we’re confronting will return to previous expectations.
