Port of Tauranga says continued growth in container and dairy export volumes for the first half of the 2016 financial year, offset a fall in log exports.
It has reported a group net profit after tax for the period of $38.6 million.
The port is focussing on becoming a bigger freight hub by expanding landside capacity, ordering new cranes and straddle carriers, dredging the harbour to accommodate larger cargo vessels, and also improving its efficiency in rail connections to drive more freight volumes through its terminals.
Revenue for the six months to December 2015 was down 9.8% following the exclusion of Tapper Transport revenue.
However, a 10.4% rise in container volumes to 470,928 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), supported the net profit, but it was diluted by a 16.2% decrease in log export volumes to 2.4 million tonnes from 2.8 million tonnes in the prior year.
Exports increased 0.8% overall to nearly 6.5 million tonnes. Processed forestry products saw some growth, including the introduction of a new export category, square lumber.
Kiwifruit exports increased 22.9% to 413,102 tonnes. Dairy product exports increased 29% compared with the previous year, as the long-term freight agreement with Kotahi entered its second year.
Imported volumes continued their steady increase, rising by 1.6% overall to nearly 3.7 million tonnes.
Imported grain and stock feed supplements decreased by 14.2%, and fertilisers by 9.7%, while oil product imports increased by 14.2%.
The Port has expanded landside capacity at the Tauranga Container Terminal and also ordered two new container cranes and thirteen new straddle carriers, for delivery in September to significantly enhance its terminal productivity.
The Port says it has focused on improving efficiency in the rail connection between the Tauranga Container Terminal and the inland freight hub at MetroPort Auckland.
There is a 24% increase in the volume of containers carried on the rail corridor compared with the same period a year ago.
“With the Tauranga Harbour channel dredging proceeding well, we are on track to complete our contractual commitments with freight and logistics management company Kotahi by July, to see larger vessels starting to call at the container terminal at the end of 2016,” says Port of Tauranga chief executive Mark Cairns.
This dredging is the final building block in our five-year $350 million investment programme to prepare for larger ships, which have the potential to deliver annual savings of as much as $300 million to New Zealand shippers,” he says.
