Ports' good result comes with touch of caution

Ports of Auckland has made a good start to its new year but the Auckland Regional Holdings-owned company is cautious about the outlook.

Container volumes (20 foot equivalent units) were up 15 per cent in July but managing director Jens Madsen said it was probably not representative of what would happen later in the year.

The normal import peak was between September and October and Madsen believed some importers had decided to ship goods early with capacity potentially scarce later on.

A number of shipping lines had been surprised by the strong volumes, he said.

"That's our challenge in a nutshell, that the situation being so volatile that even when talking to customers, getting medium-term let alone long-term prospects is very, very difficult"

About 10 per cent of the world container fleet was laid off about 6-8 months ago, he said.

"Things are now changing for the better from a global perspective so it's busy out there now."

Normalised earnings after tax for the year ending June 3 was up 55 per cent to $24.4 million, with revenue up 1.2 per cent to $165.7 million.

Container volumes were up nearly 3 per cent to a new high of 867,368 20 foot equivalent units.

The sale of Queens Wharf to the Auckland Regional Council and the Government, recapitalisation and a new bank funding arrangement contributed to a $90 million reduction in net debt and a consequent $5.5 million reduction in interest charges, the company said.

"It has been an good year financially, but it comes off a very challenging 2008/09 and volatility remains the feature of the operating environment we are in," Madsen said. "As a result our outlook for 2010/11 remains cautious."

The port managed 62 cruise ship visits, compared to 69 the previous year - although there were forward bookings for 77 visits for 2010/11. Vehicle volumes were up 17.4 per cent after a weak 2008/09.