KEY POINTS:
For years Ports of Auckland was upstaged by regional upstart Port of Tauranga, but now it wants to play a similar game by challenging Australian ports for the role of regional hub.
Auckland's port already handles 60 per cent of the upper North Island and 37 per cent of New Zealand's container trade and has had a makeover to increase capacity and efficiency.
Auckland had some trouble coping in February and March after shipping line Maersk made the port its North Island hub, knocking rival Port of Tauranga down a big notch.
But it has worked on congestion problems and is now talking about the potential to handle containers out of, or destined for, Australia.
Jens Madsen, who takes over from Geoff Vazey as Ports of Auckland's chief executive at the end of August, is cautious about doing a lot of talking before he has done some walking, but he is prepared to say the port's ambitions are Australasian.
"Ports of Auckland will continue to commit capital and other resourcing with the aim of becoming Australasia's premier container hub port coupled with a dual focus on well servicing the upper North Island trades and customers," he said.
Other port chiefs have talked privately about the potential to ship Australian containers through New Zealand, particularly refrigerated containers, because many of the large container ships that do long hauls from here have extra plugs for refrigeration.
The theory is that the supply chain constructed by Fonterra, using shipping line Maersk, could be of interest to others and the connection could be a New Zealand port.
Auckland is investing $150 million in all its new projects, and what return it gets on that is unknown.
Many think Auckland will seriously step up only by getting its rail connection working properly.
The volume through its rail terminal is up nearly 50 per cent this year, but still only 32 per cent of capacity.
- NZPA
