Dairy volume set to boost port's half-year

By Yoke Har Lee

Port of Tauranga says its share of dairy volume will have soared in the half-year to December.

The rise is due to two key events - the Dairy Board's increased use of the port and ANZDL using Tauranga as a port of call after dropping Ports of Auckland.

Port chief executive Jon Mayson said: "Our share of the dairy market in the North Island is rising significantly."

Tauranga's handling of milk powder and butter in the July-December period was also well ahead of the previous year.

In the 1999 financial year to June 30, dairy volumes rose 11 per cent to 371,000 tonnes.

Dairy produce accounted for about 5.5 per cent of the port's six million-odd tonnes in export volume.

The port markets itself as a location to capture the 900,000-odd tonnes of dairy produce flowing out of the King Country and Waikato regions.

However, Tauranga's main business was still forestry products.

Logs and other forest products make up 74 per cent of the port's volume.

Tauranga is also working hard to sign up customers in addition to ANZDL for its inland port Metroport, based in Onehunga, Auckland.

Mr Mayson said that even with just one customer, Metroport would still be financially viable.

Industry observers said because Metroport's service was linked to Tranz Rail, the successful clinching of additional customers would have to fit in with the rail service's needs. The ANZDL service is built around weekends, around Tranz Rail's schedules.

ANZDL's general manager John Pascoe said the shipping line was very happy with the move to Tauranga.

"We have experienced quite a bit of growth since. Because of the move, we have picked up some local customers who found it more convenient to use a local port."

Mr Pascoe said trade had been growing in the last two quarters.

"On top of picking up growth from better exports, we have picked up another 10 per cent growth based on calling through Tauranga. Our ships are working within 30 minutes of arrival."

Last year, Port of Tauranga reported a record 55 per cent rise in after-tax profit to $18.1 million for the year ended June. This was on a 20 per cent jump in container volumes and a recovery in its traditional log volumes. Excluding the one-off gain from the sale of fixed assets, the profit was up 33 per cent.

After a 20 per cent dip in log volumes in 1998, log volumes rose 9.5 per cent last year in line with Asia's recovery.

Other ports view Tauranga as a well managed port.

Ken Harris, chief executive of Wellington's Centre Port, said although ports were operating in a tough marketplace with competition expected to escalate the Port of Tauranga was well-positioned to throw an ongoing challenge to the Ports of Auckland.

When news broke that Ports of Auckland had lost ANZDL as a customer, industry analysts reckoned that the port would lose about 10 per cent or 50,000 TEUs - what ANZDL used to account for.

Auckland, however, said in October that its first quarter (July-September 1999) throughput rose 3 per cent year-on-year, despite ANZDL's loss. It said its container volume dipped one per cent with the loss of its major customer.