Eastland Port is pushing for permission to extend its wharf to add an extra berth as forestry continues to boom in the Gisborne area.
Forestry is a regional success story and as a result Eastland Port needs moderate expansion to keep up, says general manager Andrew Gaddum.
“We can handle 2.9 million tonnes of wood per year but with a predicted 5 million tonnes of wood coming by 2024, we need to make some changes.”
Eastland Port is sharing its twin berth development plans with the community in advance of applying for the Gisborne District Council consents it will need to future-proof the port.
Gaddum says the biggest issues facing the port are a lack of wharf length, and space for logs and other cargo.
“The only way to move more wood off the port faster is to load two large ships at once. “We need to make the wharves stronger and longer so two 200m long ships can be loaded at the same time.”
“Finding space is a real challenge. We’ve looked at many options and we’ve become more efficient by doing things like doubling our ship loading rates and stacking wood more efficiently.
But it’s not enough. We think the only reasonable answer is a small amount of land reclamation. At this stage we believe that might be around 1.5ha in behind wharf 8 and the seawall.”
Once two ships can berth at wharf 8 simultaneously, we will need extra area to load from, and more space to store the logs ready for export, says Gaddum.
He says investment makes financial sense. It gives Gisborne a community-owned asset that will help secure new coastal shipping routes (which could include container trade), and offers regional resilience should we suffer a serious earthquake or weather event. A refurbished port will also accommodate new international trade and exports, and expand the level of service it can offer to cruise ships.
“The port is a good barometer of this region’s economic health.”
