Shipping containers stacked at Totara St in Tauranga. Photo / Alex Cairns
Whether for sleepouts, storage, site offices or a shed for the jetski, the fast-growing Bay of Plenty has “constant” demand for shipping containers, bosses in the industry say.
More than a million containers enter New Zealand each year and more than a million carry export goods, but the demand for uses other than shipping is rising. Container companies in the region are working to keep up, but a lack of industrial land is making building new container facilities a challenge.
Storage Depot owner Paul Lovrich said its container sales were “on par” with previous years, however, the wet weather meant getting access to containers was proving tricky and “holding things up”.
But, he said, an “upside” was on its way with lots of people inquiring about containers.
Lovrich said there was a “constant demand” for hiring from all industries.
“The market is always changing.”
Construction, horticulture, and farming were “busy”, as were school projects for prefab classrooms, and “we get busy coming into Christmas” with retail stock arriving for the festive shopping season, he said.
“We have had to turn down hire jobs because we can’t cope with it all.”
Containers can be used for “quick fixes”; shelters, sheds, and extra space, as well as anything from a sleepout for extra room in a Rotorua rental, space for a builder’s tools, extra storage for a foodbank, to someone on Waiheke Island needing a shed for their jetski, he said.
Another company has expanded its Bay of Plenty operations to keep up with demand.
Royal Wolf New Zealand executive general manager Paul Creighton said ongoing building and infrastructure projects in the region, along with population growth, were driving demand for shipping container products.
That included everything from dry storage and refrigerated containers to dangerous goods containers and portable buildings for the construction sector.
Creighton said its new facility on Taurikura Drive in the Tauriko Business Estate enabled the company to hold more stock in the region.
It had a dedicated 24/7 self-storage facility of a range of 10 to 20 foot (about 3-metre to 6m) units and 20-foot refrigeration space to meet customer demand, he said.
“We will have more containers on the ground in the Bay and a greater variety of container products to meet the increased demand we are receiving from across a wide range of industries.”
The Tauranga site would also do bespoke container modifications for customers, he said.
Creighton said the facility was a “huge step up” for Royal Wolf’s Bay of Plenty business and said the Tauriko Business Estate’s arterial transport links and thriving commercial and business hub made it ideal.
Royal Wolf supplied containers across industries ranging from infrastructure, government, and building and construction, through to retail, agri-business, community groups and sporting clubs.
Uses include offices in the construction and infrastructure sectors; refrigeration for products at supermarkets, events, and festivals; and dangerous goods storage for the primary sector and manufacturing industry.
“Containerised walkways that create safe pedestrian access around tight footprint construction projects are also in constant demand.”
Creighton said there was also household demand.
“People are storing everything from overflow products from retail outlets, through to household items where a family has run out of space at home, or they are moving house and need extra storage space for a temporary period.”
Hiring a shipping container could cost $150 to $1500 per month and were hired for an average of more than two years, he said.
ContainerCo managing director Ken Harris said demand for containers for keeping food jumped during Covid-19 as retailers and other businesses created flexible storage options. That demand had continued with 90 per cent of its 2800 general and specialised containers for lease being used, he said.
In the Bay of Plenty, Harris said more than 1500 containers were hired annually, with the annual growth trend fairly steady at 5 per cent year-on-year.
ContainerCo’s fleet included containers that could control humidity and dry fruit, others were for blast freezing or refrigerated storage.
“The modification of containers is as diverse as the imagination of the lessor or buyer.”
Leasing a normal shipping container cost less than $5 per day and refrigerated containers lease for around $25 per day.
ContainerCo, which has container depots on Waimarie St in Mount Maunganui and Tauranga Container Park terminal at the Port of Tauranga, takes in empty general-purpose shipping containers used by importers and upgrades them for use by exporters. It also cleans, repairs, and tests refrigerated containers for exporting agricultural products that were often brought in empty.
Harris said import containers arriving in depots were currently “well down” at about 30 per cent this quarter compared to last year.
“Export volumes have also been lower than expected due to storm damage affecting the agricultural centres that the New Zealand economy depends on. This means depots are coping well enough this year.”
However, Harris said exports would now inevitably be constrained by significant shortfalls in the capacity of container depots to supply refrigerated containers to key horticultural industries.
“In the Bay of Plenty, developing additional facilities or relocating non-core operations is a challenge.
“Industrial land is in short supply and the development of new facilities takes time. In the Bay of Plenty, in particular, much of this time cost and business risk arises due to consent processes.”
A1 Containers general manager Ricky Clark said despite a “definite slowdown” over the Christmas and New Year period this year was trending upward.
“Prices have come down a lot since mid-last year, so we are hoping this encourages an increase in sale numbers as they become more affordable.”
Clark said clients mostly hired or bought shipping containers for residential and commercial storage, with pricing starting at $70 plus GST per month.
“The building and construction industries use them a lot as it’s a secure way to store product and tools onsite,” he said.
“But we are seeing an increase in customers converting them into usable spaces to use at home or to use as a business.”
With property sizes getting smaller and space coming “at a premium” a container was a quick, easy, and affordable way to have extra storage or liveable space, he said.
“I think across New Zealand over the past few years there has been an increasing trend of container sales/hires and more so in the tiny home market.”
The Port of Tauranga has ordered four new Kalmar straddle carriers - which are used to move containers to and from the ship-to-shore container cranes on the wharves - as part of its ongoing investment in a more fuel-efficient straddle carrier fleet.
A spokeswoman said the port had more than 50 straddle carriers operating at its container terminal, which was New Zealand’s largest handling more than 1.2 million 20-foot equivalent units per year.
The four new machines were hybrid models and will be delivered later this year, the spokeswoman said.
“We already have three hybrid models, purchased in 2020, which we have found to be about 25 per cent more fuel efficient than our other, diesel-electric models.”
It has also taken possession of eight second-hand straddles from Lyttelton Port Company.
“We will use these to replace some of our older, less efficient models,” the spokeswoman said.
“One of our main sources of carbon emissions is diesel use (primarily by straddle carriers, as well as marine fuel) so anything we can do to reduce diesel consumption will reduce our carbon emissions.”
Zoe Hunter is an assistant news director covering business and property news for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She also writes for NZME’s regional business publication Money. Zoe has worked for NZME since 2017.
The deaths are the first in this year's Christmas road toll period.