Northport is investing $8 million in infrastructure to support the growth of container traffic through the port.
It is buying container-handling equipment and a simulator module to train staff in its operation, expanding its container storage area and upgrading its lighting to enhance safety during 24-hour operations.
The company is forecasting a 15% year-on-year increase in the volume of container traffic for the financial year to the end of June.
It has also placed orders for two new reach-stacker container handlers and a new dock-truck and MAFI trailer to strengthen the port’s container-handling ability.
Workers will start paving an extra four hectares of its south-west development in October and install at a later stage six 35m towers with LED lights – a first for the port.
“This investment demonstrates our commitment to growing container traffic through Northport to service the trade needs of both our region and north Auckland,” chief executive Jon Moore says.
“It’s a solid vote of confidence in the potential for significant and continued economic growth around our region and across the Upper North Island.”
“We’ve had to rise to the unexpected challenges presented by recent unplanned and large-scale container traffic, with the bare minimum of equipment.
“I’m hugely proud of the way our small team has adapted and used what we have to great effect. But we expect container traffic through Northport to keep growing so the time is right to expand our container-handling, receipt and dispatch capability,” he says.
Moore says the investment is not linked to possible expansion of the port.
“This is equipment we need to manage the here and now. We invest in infrastructure that we know we have a need for. It’s the approach we took with our two mobile harbour cranes and it’s the same story with this latest tranche of investment.”
Northport, situated at Marsden Point, is New Zealand’s northernmost deep-water port.
Logs, woodchip and processed timber for export comprise the bulk of cargo handled by the port.
Recent investment in container handling equipment has seen an uptake in coastal and international container trade.
Other export items include kiwifruit, dairy products and manufactured goods. Imports are also an important part of Northport’s business and include fertiliser, gypsum, coal and palm kernel.
*Go to visionforgrowth.co.nz for more information on the plans.
