Lyttelton Port Company’s net profit after tax for the 2022 financial year was $18.9 million – up 18% on 2021 and 7% more than its target.
The port also exchanged a record-breaking half a million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) – the first time in the Lyttleton Port’s history. The total TEU this year was 502,210, a 15% increase from last year.
“This significant milestone was only possible thanks to the hard work, dedication and innovation from our teams at Lyttelton Port, CityDepot and MidlandPort, as well as our customers,” says LPC chief executive Kirstie Gardener.
“It’s been a year of great highs, but one tragic low for the port with the loss of cargo handler Don Grant on ANZAC Day. Don’s passing was deeply shocking for the LPC whanau and this loss is felt by us all, but most of all by Don’s family.”
While external investigations into this tragedy continue, with LPC’s full cooperation, the port is focused on supporting staff who have been affected.
It’s also committed to ensuring that Grant’s memory is maintained by learning from this event and making sure the entire port industry is as safe as possible for all workers, the port says.
“As part of this commitment, we’re actively involved in the work the Minister of Transport and Workplace Safety Michael Wood has launched to strengthen port industry safety,” says LPC board chair Margaret Devlin.
“We’re focused on helping develop new standards for our industry that cover the critical risks workers face every day.”
LPC says it continues to implement significant health and safety improvements through its Safety Reset, Life-Saving Commitments, and Critical Control Verification Audits that assess the controls in place for critical risks.
It also launched a comprehensive Permit to Work system this year which increases visibility and control over contractors and others carrying out work around the port, including allowing LPC to intervene when work practices need to be changed.
The year also saw former chief executive Roger Gray leave for Ports of Auckland with Kirstie Gardener taking the LPC post.
She is the first female LPC chief executive and has been part of the executive team as general manager people and safety since February 2019, after first moving to the port from ANZCO Foods Ltd.
Gardener says LPC has a clear path forward and the business remains dedicated to its strategy focused on whanaungatanga, infrastructure for the future and sustainable profitability.
“I’m committed to building on LPC’s momentum this year and ensuring that we continue to play our role in delivering positive outcomes for Canterbury and the wider South Island.”
As the South Island’s largest international trade gateway that facilitates the movement of billions of dollars’ worth of imports and exports each year, LPC is continuing to invest in infrastructure.
The company saw a 37.5% rise in the value of exports through the port this year to $8.61 billion – a $2b increase from the previous year. The value of imports into Lyttelton also jumped by 44.5% to just under $6b.
This significant growth highlighted the need for an $85m Eastern Development programme, which will expand the Lyttelton Container Terminal on the Te Awaparahi Bay reclamation and boost capacity from 500,000 to 620,000 TEUs annually.
“We have completed some major upgrades to our dry dock facilities this year and we’re also adding a new container yard, four new reefer towers, new truck receival and dispatch lanes, and a new straddle workshop facility,” says Gardener.
She says it’s exciting to see cruise ships return to Lyttelton, berthing at the port’s new cruise terminal.
“We have more than 80 bookings for the summer 2022-23 season – a massive increase on the 25 small vessels who visited us in the 2019 to 2020 season.”
Devlin says LPC is working to complete a climate risk assessment and have taken steps towards biodiversity reporting.
“We’re also reviewing our existing carbon reduction plan, and in FY23 the board will look at adopting science-based targets to update our sustainability strategy.”
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