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Strike action at Ports of Auckland could play into the hands of rival operator Port of Tauranga, analysts say.
ABN Amro analyst Daniel Kieser said the industrial action had a compounding affect.
"When they took on the Maersk volume last year [at] Ports of Auckland it caused major
delays," Kieser said. "If you're an exporter and you've recently come through that scenario and are now moving into potential strikes you may be re-evaluating whether to go through Tauranga."
Kieser said he would not be surprised if Tauranga was already talking to companies which use Auckland.
Another analyst said Auckland had invested heavily in infrastructure.
"They've probably filled the port up with fairly low-yielding Maersk business so they're in a pretty difficult situation, they really need to get their productivity up," he said.
A 48-hour strike by 265 waterside workers began yesterday.
The Maritime Union wants a pay rise of between 4.5 per cent and 4.9 per cent and allowances.
Ports of Auckland was offering a 3.25 per cent rise in wages and allowances for each of three years and a productivity deal worth up to an additional 2.5 per cent.
Fonterra managing director for global trade Kelvin Wickham said the dairy exporter would be monitoring the situation with interest, although it was a Ports of Auckland issue.
"At this stage Fonterra doesn't anticipate any disruption in supplying our customers," Wickham said.
"We currently ship our products from a number of ports in New Zealand and if the Auckland strike was to go on we would need to consider diverting our export products through other ports."
A spokesman for Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, which exported nearly 99 per cent of sales last year, said a 48-hour strike would not have any impact on the company.
Bruce Goldsworthy of the Employers & Manufacturers Association Northern said any escalation in industrial action would concern local companies.
"Certainly most businesses, regardless of whether they're wholesalers importing or exporters or whatever, would be able to manage their way around a two-day strike, particularly when they had a little bit of notice," Goldsworthy said.
"The real concern is that it develops into either a series of rolling strikes or becomes a strike of any sort of duration because then you get very rapidly a domino effect."
This week's strike is the second of four planned by the Maritime Union. The first was on September 11 and lasted three hours and fifteen minutes, a third strike of the same duration is planned for October 9 with a fourth on October 17.
Ports of Auckland said it handled more than 770,000 twenty-foot equivalent container units each year - half of the North Island's container trade - and more than $20 billion of New Zealand's international trade.
"Everybody's working now much more to just-in-time type operations and they need containers in and containers out," Goldsworthy said.
Companies could bypass Auckland but using other ports could incur additional costs.
"Internal freight in New Zealand is not cheap whether it is rail or road and the last thing we need is any more big trucks on the road," he said.
"It might be a little bit of an inconvenience but it wouldn't have any significant affect on our business."
Ports of Auckland managing director Jens Madsen said the rolling strikes were unacceptable and impacted all customers and New Zealand's international trade.
"We will continue to work in good faith to identify a solution and will work to ensure that the shorter three hour and fifteen minute strikes have minimal impact on port operations."
Ports Of Auckland
* Handles half the North Island container trade.
* Workers started a 48-hour strike yesterday.
* Companies concerned about any escalation.
*Rival ports could benefit from industrial unrest.