Ports of Auckland’s council dividend will be reduced by more than $100 million over the next two years as a result of its “capital expansion” period.
The council-owned port is forecasting its dividend to drop from $51m in 2018 to $8.7m in 2020, according to notes in Auckland Council’s finance and performance committee agenda.
This will rise slightly to $9.4m in 2021 before recovering to $64.3m in 2022.
Net profit after tax is expected to be $40.1m in 2020, $44m in 2021 and $77.3m in 2022.
The port welcomed three massive new container cranes in October last year valued at $60m.
These were expected to be up and running after a five to six-month commissioning process, however this has taken longer than expected. Now they are not expected be up and running until February next year at the earliest.
The cranes are the first in New Zealand able to lift four containers at once, weighing up to 130 tonnes. Current cranes, which weigh between 1200 and 1300 tonnes, can only lift two containers up to 65 tonnes.
Auckland Council planning committee chair Chris Darby told Newshub he is disappointed with the delay.
“They’re not operating, they’re not productive, they’re not doing their job as we expected, it’s a significant outlay, $60 million.”
Port spokesman Matt Ball says everything is operating fine and that the delay simply comes down to the complexity of the job.
In the August committee meeting, recommendations were made for more engagement on efficient operations and commercial performance at the port.
“The current Port Master Plan contains initiatives to provide more capacity and reduce the impacts of car imports on Bledisloe and Captain Cook wharves. However, there may be scope for more improvements.
“[Ports of Auckland] should further investigate new solutions for handling car imports to reduce both the impacts of cars on the wharves, as well as the congestion impacts of transporting cars off the wharves by road transport.
“To ensure that the benefits of the capital expansion and automation project can be fully realised, it will also be important to address supply chain constraints for the container trade beyond the port gate,” it says.
The installation of the automated container handling system have also reduced terminal capacity at the port by about 20%, adding to congestion.
This situation will remain until late 2019 when the project is expected to be completed.
