Above is a screenshot from the TasPorts Bell Bay Shipping Schedule page along with a photo of the woodchip bulk carrier ‘Globulus’ currently berthed at Bell Bay wharf 6.
http://www.tasports.com.au/port_services/arrivalsbellbay.html
You will notice that ‘details pertaining to some vessels may be withheld for security reasons’?
Interestingly, a cargo of ‘explosives’ is not withheld for security reasons. But what cargoes are withheld? In Tasmania woodchips are deemed a higher security risk than explosives.
We won’t speculate on how that situation came about because there is more to reveal about Tasmania’s ‘ghost woodchip carriers’.
This will be the second round trip between Bell Bay and South China for the Globulus in 2015. It loads woodchips from Artec whose logs are sourced from Forestry Tasmania and native forests.
Apparently the Tasmanian government has been paying to haul logs to the Artec Bell Bay chip mills for the past few years.
The Globulus is currently carrying woodchip exports to the Chinese city of Longkou. But there are no pulp mills in Longkou. They mostly manufacture machinery there.
So what are Tasmanian woodchips being used for in Longkou? Artec would know and so would Forestry Tasmania. FT’s Forest Stewardship Council certification company
SCS Global Services would also know. Or do they? Even the FSC entry level ‘Controlled Wood’ requires ‘chain of custody’ tracking of where the material is sourced and verification of every time it changes hands.
If the Tasmanian taxpayer is subsidising the export of woodchips to be used as boiler fuel in China then the certifier still needs all the details. The problem is, woodchip exports are classified for ‘security reasons’.
Forico’s woodchip exports were also being hidden by TasPorts, but once Forico were informed that local FSC members knew about their ‘ghost ships’ the situation was quickly rectified.
• Pete Godfrey, in Comments: #21 Jack I would have thought that the reason for this article was reasonably self explanatory. It appears that Forestry Tasmania are trying to take over from where Gunns left off. It is obvious that the higher paying customers (Japan) want nothing to do with our native forest woodchips so FT have gone to China to drum up business. China must be paying an absolute pittance for our woodchips if they are indeed using them as boiler fuel. So what it comes down to is that Australian Taxpayers are paying to have Tasmanian forests cut down and exported at what is probably a loss to FT. The fact that our forests are being cut down only to be burnt, and that all the so called residue on the forest floor is also burnt should actually be a crime in a world where carbon pollution needs to be curtailed.
