Exports increased more than 8% to 9.2 million tonnes, led by a big boost in forestry products, which jumped 19% to 6 mt. Grain and dairy food supplement imports were up 27% to almost 850,000 tonnes. Container traffic was down 6.5% because of shipping line rationalisation at 511,343 TEU (20-foot equivalent units). “We have increased our market share as New Zealand’s largest port and this has been confirmed by a number of measures – trade volume, productivity and profitability,” says Mark Cairns, Port of Tauranga Chief Executive. “We now handle 80% more international cargo volume than our nearest competitor (up from 56% from the previous year) and three times the volume of international exports.” In fact, Tauranga is currently the most productive port in all of Australasia with crane productivity and truck turnaround times well ahead of other major ports. At Ports of Auckland, after tax profit defied the recession and reached NZ$37.2 million in the fiscal ending June 30, 2010, and that was a massive increase over the NZ$5.4 million in the previous fiscal, albeit helped by the sale of Queen’s Wharf. As New Zealand’s busiest container port, Auckland lifted its container handling count by 3% to 867,368 TEU. And Auckland saw possible signs that consumer spending is returning to normal with a 17.5% rise in vehicle imports, although Ports of Auckland Managing Director, Jens Madsen, says it was difficult to tell if this was restocking after plant and stock rundown, or an ongoing trend. “Ports of Auckland achieved some good market gains through the year, but the operating environment remains very dynamic and competitive,” Madsen cautions. And in a dilemma facing New Zealand’s major ports, fewer ships are calling, but those that do are becoming larger and larger vessels. Auckland handled 1,530 ships in the latest fiscal year and that was down 5.6%. “The impact of the global financial crisis on world trade has led to shipping sector changes including consolidation, vessel-share arrangements, slow steaming and the move to hubbing – with larger vessels making fewer visits,” says Madsen. The global shipping changes are forcing New Zealand ports to adapt to new realities. This new environment currently has two South Island ports in talks about a possible merger – the Port of Christchurch at Lyttelton and the Port of Otago further south – and both are behind closed doors to determine if there are any long-term benefits to becoming a single entity. And the changing world of trade has prompted the Port of Tauranga to seek to deepen and widen its shipping channel so that it can handle container vessels up to 7,000 TEU in size. Earlier this year, the 4,578 TEU OOCL New Zealand called at Tauranga and became the largest container vessel in the kiwi trade. Previously, the largest vessels on the run were 4,100 TEU, while the average vessel is closer to 3,000. The channel improvement work was recommended for resource consent and is now before the Environment Court. By deepening the harbour channel to allow ships of 14.5 meter draught, Tauranga’s port chief Cairns says the port has underscored its determination to become the North island’s hub port for both export and imports. And his case was strengthened late in August when the New Zealand Shipping Council in its report on the international supply chain named Tauranga as “the logical choice” to be first to make the investment needed to accommodate the 7,000 TEU vessels. Most New Zealand ports see the move to even larger ships as inevitable – the 8,500 TEU CMA-CGM Figaro recently had its maiden voyage to the Port of Los Angeles – and shipping lines are redirecting once large vessels Down Under to make way for the new giants of the trade on the lucrative North American runs to and from Asia. Meanwhile, the Port of Otago has lodged a resource and consent application for consideration of its “next generation” project to deepen and widen a 13 kilometer channel from Port Chalmers to the Aramoana salt marshes to allow it to handle larger container ships up to 8,000 TEU. The three-stage, NZ$100 million project, also involves disposal of about 7.2 cubic meters of dredge spoil at sea, and extending berths at Port Chalmers. Ports of Auckland contends that its “prudent dredging programme” already has the Auckland facilities “well positioned for the future.” The recent completion of the consolidation of the Fergusson and Bledisloe container terminal operations was hailed as a strategic milestone, along with the opening of a new freight hub rail exchange at Wiri. There is still talk about the need for the consolidation of New Zealand ports so that future investment can be commercially driven and not at the whim of regional interests. One of those pushing the rationalisation is Tauranga’s Cairns who says that over time “we believe that a hierarchy of ports will develop in New Zealand. This will happen naturally and rapidly if ports can simply apply commercial principles to their investments.” Tauranga has significant land holdings which will allow expansion at both its major container terminal and bulk freight wharves.”We have none of the space constraints or pressure from urbanisation of city waterfronts that other ports are facing,” says Cairns.But others aren’t so sure. Port rationalisation talks so far have “lacked key information and seemed likely to generate more noise than substance,” according to Blair O’Keeffe, Chief Executive of CentrePort in the capital city of Wellington. While he acknowledges there will be changes among the nation’s ports, O’Keeffe says “their speed and nature is likely to be more subtle than dramatic.”