Ports of Auckland is reporting net profit of $17.2 million, down $7.2m for the six months to December.
Revenue was flat for the period with $123.2m compared to $123.6m for the previous year.
Container volume was down 2% with 475,173 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) and total general cargo volume of 3.297m tonnes was down slightly compared to 3.253m tonnes in the previous period.
Car volumes were up slightly with 124,295 units compared to 124,190 units in the previous period.
Port chief executive Tony Gibson says the result was as expected with costs up due to the investment programme, higher interest costs, and higher labour costs.
This includes automation, a new car handling building and facilities at the Waikato Freight Hub.
Flat growth is expected to remain for the full year and the company will not pay an interim dividend and will pay a lower full-year dividend as forecast.
The second half of the year will be impacted by the coronavirus but it’s hoped this will be temporary.
“Our company is in the midst of delivering our 30-year master plan, a major investment programme which will increase capacity, efficiency and returns, as well as lay the foundation for us to meet our 2040 zero emission goal,” Gibson says.
“Delivering such a large investment programme whilst keeping the port working well has not been without challenges, however the last six months have seen significant progress and the next six months will see the completion of two major master plan elements: container terminal automation and the new car handling building.
“We have also made significant progress on a third element, channel deepening.
“We largely completed infrastructure work for terminal automation this period, enabling some capacity to be returned to terminal operations. There is still some work to do in the second half of the financial year, but the worst of the disruption from this work is behind us. The 2019 import peak did not see the same level of congestion or delay that was seen in 2018,” Gibson says.
