Port of Tauranga has completed its largest ever cargo exchange at its Tauranga Container Terminal for the delivery of vital supplies.
The Sally Maersk container ship exchanged 9367 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) over two and a half days before departing Tauranga for Kaohsiung (Taiwan) Thursday afternoon, April 2.
Port of Tauranga chief executive Mark Cairns says the exchange “completely blitzed” the previous record exchange of just under 7000 TEUs.
At the same time, another 1772 TEUs were exchanged on two other vessels – the Charlie B and the domestic vessel Moana Chief.
“It is an outstanding achievement by our team, Independent Stevedoring Ltd, C3 Limited and our other service providers,” Cairns says.
“Everyone has pulled together to ensure that essential cargo can be delivered and the supply chain keeps moving to make room for high priority supplies during the lockdown.”
Four ship-to-shore cranes were used with operators achieving a ship rate of 97.49 moves per hour – an impressive 160% more efficient than the national average.
“The need to keep everyone safe by maintaining physical distances means things can take a little longer, but this great achievement demonstrates port workers’ patience, cooperation and commitment.
“Thanks are also due to the truck drivers and KiwiRail staff ensuring import and export cargo gets to and from the port. We also appreciate the quick processing of imported containers by border agencies Customs New Zealand and the Ministry for Primary Industries,” Cairns says.
