Qantas Freight yesterday called on freight forwarders to collect their inbound freight as quickly as possible to clear space for incoming cargo at terminals in Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.

Mr [Eric Roozendaal] said terminal operator P&O was at 95 per cent capacity and had moved 700 containers to a bonded warehouse, where cargo sits until it has cleared Customs.

Qantas Freight general manager Robert Lugton said: “All four terminals are at critical capacity levels, and delays in the collection of freight over the weekend will have a major impact, particularly at the terminals in Melbourne and Sydney.”

SYDNEY’S major port will hit 100 per cent capacity tomorrow as chaos continues to envelop the nation’s air and sea terminals after the botched introduction of a new $250million Customs computer system.

Qantas Freight yesterday called on freight forwarders to collect their inbound freight as quickly as possible to clear space for incoming cargo at terminals in Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.

NSW Ports Minister Eric Roozendaal described the introduction of the Integrated Cargo System as “gross bungling” and said thearrival of six more cargo-laden ships today and tomorrow would further strain the system.

“This is a major threat to the state’s businesses,” he said.

“The federal Government is just not being realistic about the damage it is doing to the NSW economy.”

Mr Roozendaal said he feared stock would not be on shop shelves in the lead-up to Christmas as small businesses struggled to cope with delays.

“My real fear is that we will have to turn ships away this week and there will be a queue off the coast. Freight forwarders are telling us that the delay in getting Christmas stock to retailers will threaten many small businesses and cost jobs.”

Mr Roozendaal said terminal operator P&O was at 95 per cent capacity and had moved 700 containers to a bonded warehouse, where cargo sits until it has cleared Customs.

Rival port operator Patrick Corp is at 90 per cent capacity. It has moved 380 containers to a nearby bonded warehouse and a further 100 containers by train to a warehouse in western Sydney.

Qantas Freight general manager Robert Lugton said: “All four terminals are at critical capacity levels, and delays in the collection of freight over the weekend will have a major impact, particularly at the terminals in Melbourne and Sydney.”

Despite the chaos, and calls from industry, Customs Minister Chris Ellison last week decided to keep the computer system, introduced this month, rather than reinstate the old system.

TNT Freight Management’s national freight forwarding manager, Chris Jensen, said the new system was causing “almost total disruption to the business of Customs clearing and delivering import cargo”.

He said freight handlers had serious doubts it would work and operators had spent hours trying unsuccessfully to log on to the system.

Also published in The Advertiser under the headline Ports close to 100 per cent capacity.