Shippers ‘neutral’ on moving Ports of Auckland

The shipping industry says it has no preference around the location of Auckland’s port operations.

NZ Shipping Federation executive director Annabel Young says the “ships go where the cargo is”.

“The federation is concerned that we are being misrepresented as to issues surrounding the location of the Auckland port. We are neutral,” Young says.

However, the federation says any move carries some risk which needs to be considered and all costs are ultimately passed onto the consumer. These include:

If a new port is developed but not used fully, the port has to carry the cost of the optimistic but orphan infrastructure investments.

When this happens the cost of the orphan infrastructure has to be recovered from whoever does use the port. This is both expensive and wasteful. It can lead to a downward spiral for that port.

If the usage of the Waitemata site is restricted, for example, to cruise ships, or to cruise ships and tankers, the cost of port infrastructure (such as wharves, tugs, pilot boats, staffing to operate the port) are carried by a much smaller number of users and become very expensive to those users.

Duplication of port infrastructure (for example, because the Waitemata site is used for cruise ships and tankers while an alternative port is used for cargo) is expensive.

Supply chains to Auckland need to be secure across all types of cargo. Continuity of the supply of fuel is at greatest risk from any decision to remove storage tanks from Auckland.