KEY POINTS:
The decision on a location for the North Island's largest port should be in central government's hands, because parochial councils will never agree where it should be.
This is the opinion of Rod Grout, chief executive of coastal shipping company Pacifica Shipping, who added his voice again to those saying there needs to be rationalisation in the port sector.
Ports of Auckland and Port of Tauranga are competing to be a hub port for very large container ships, while some in the industry believe Northland's port is the logical choice even though it currently has no large container cranes on its wharves at Marsden Point.
Mr Grout would not say where he thought the hub port should be, but he was clear that government intervention was needed for one large and efficient port in the upper North Island to meet the country's future shipping requirements.
It was most unlikely that rival port companies would willingly concede cargo throughput, given their parochial stances on regional development.
Ports of Auckland this month floated the idea of buying the container business of Port of Tauranga, while last year Port of Tauranga pushed for a merger of the two ports.
Ports of Auckland is wholly owned by the commercial arm of Auckland Regional Council, while Environment Bay of Plenty has majority ownership of the listed Port of Tauranga.
While local body ownership and control persisted in the port sector there was virtually no chance that much-needed rationalisation would occur, Mr Grout said.
"Yet it is obvious that New Zealand has too many ports committing large capital amounts to compete for fewer and larger overseas vessels calling here.
"The rivalry for international trade between Auckland and Tauranga is similar to the Lyttelton and Otago situation, where a stalemate over merger talks has existed for some years," he said.
He said the time was right for Government to initiate economic directives for developing one major hub port catering for the bulk of export and import container movements.
"If New Zealand wants regular service from the next generation of post-Panamax ships, we have no choice but to start planning soon for a single port of call that will attract these vessels.
"That port should logically be in the upper half of the North Island, and linked domestically to other regions by a network of coastal ships and inter-modal transport such as rail.
"The alternative will be fewer overseas ships calling at all our ports and making them even more financially vulnerable than they are now," Mr Grout said.
Without a government-led initiative for one superport as the country's focal point for offshore cargo, transport inefficiency would remain a significant burden on economic prosperity, he said.
Currently the largest container ships that call can carry 4100 standard sized containers. The next generation to call is expected to carry up to 6000 containers.
- NZPA
