Tauranga forges links to south

By PAM GRAHAM

Port of Marlborough yesterday named a new chief executive and director drawn from Port of Tauranga and said the two ports intended to work together on any development of a new Cook Strait ferry terminal at Clifford Bay.

Sean Bolt, the container manager at Tauranga's Sulphur Pt, will leave to become chief executive at Marlborough but will maintain contact with his former employer as part of a management services contract.

Port of Tauranga's chief executive, Jon Mayson, will become a director at Marlborough.

Port of Tauranga, which already has a joint venture in Northland, said it was signalling increasing co-operation with Marlborough, a port it does not compete directly with.

Tranz Rail is considering moving its interisland ferry terminal from Picton to Clifford Bay to reduce travelling time to Christchurch and the number of ferries it runs, but it will not build the new terminal.

The rail company worked with Port of Tauranga in the development of an "inland terminal" in South Auckland but it is understood that other ports and infrastructure companies are interested in the Clifford Bay project.

Port of Marlborough chairman David Dew said the economics of the project "were hard to understand" until Tranz Rail indicated the size of expected cost savings and how much more it would be prepared to pay in port charges.

Registrations of interest have yet to be called for.

A new terminal is expected to cost between $90 million and $130 million, requiring income between $15 million and $20 million a year. Tranz Rail now pays just under $5 million to use Picton.

Port of Marlborough is owned by the Marlborough District Council and earned $3.3 million after tax in 2001, which was a 12.7 per cent return on shareholders' funds.

Marlborough handles 1.5 million passengers a year at Picton and has wharves that handle exports in Picton and Shakespeare Bay. It also owns marine farms, an airport and marinas throughout the Marlborough Sounds.

Dew said the management contract with Tauranga, which was not expensive, gave staff a knowledge base to bounce ideas off "on a proper basis". It would be Marlborough's intention to work with Port of Tauranga and "maybe other parties as well" on Clifford Bay, he said.

The position of chief executive at the Marlborough Port was advertised and 100 people applied.

Mayson said the co-operation with Marlborough benefited both sides and it was not an aggressive expansion.