Napier Port opens its 'game-changer' - 6 Wharf

Napier Port's 6 Wharf - right of centre. Picture / Supplied

Napier Port officially opens its new state-of-the-art wharf today - six months ahead of time and at the low end of budget.

The NZX-listed port is putting on a fireworks display to celebrate the opening of the 350-metre-long wharf to thank the Hawke's Bay community for its support during its planning and construction.

Chief executive Todd Dawson said 6 Wharf was a significant milestone for the port and for the Hawke's Bay region.

Planning for the project started over seven years ago.

An initial public offer and NZX listing took place in August 2019 and construction started in February 2020.

Thankfully, "6 Wharf" is due to take on a new name at a ceremony scheduled for this morning.

The new wharf will unlock capacity and operational performance across all of Napier Port's wharfs, and allows berthing of much larger vessels, including 320-metre-long container ships and Oasis-class cruise liners.

"It's been a long and arduous journey to get to this point - many years of buildup and preparation prior to even a spade going into the ground," Dawson told the Herald.

"These sorts of infrastructure assets are difficult to get planned, funded, developed and built, and they are around for a long time.

"It unlocks the congestion issue that the port has had in the past," he said.

"It's not all about big ships - it's about more and more vessels and more and more cargo coming through the port, and of varying types - logs, containers, fuel and other bulk commodities, as well as the likes of cruise ships.

"It allows us to handle all those trades far more easily than in the past, and taking away the congestion issue," he said.

Napier Port has in the past had to leave vessels at anchor while it managed what was inside the port.

Dawson said the new facility would allow the company to accommodate future growth in Hawke's Bay and the central North Island.

"It's absolutely a game-changer for us in terms of our ability to handle that future growth."

The new wharf was originally budgeted to cost $173m to $190m, later narrowing to $173m to $179m.

Dawson said the project was likely to come in near the bottom of the revised range.

Construction of 6 Wharf was a major motivation for the 2019 IPO and Dawson said the company's financials were tracking well in line with forecasts issued in the product disclosure statement for the share offer.

The company's latest earnings guidance is for $38m to $42m ebitda for year to September 31.

Now that Covid restrictions have been lifted, the port is expecting the Ovation of the Seas cruise ship on October 24.

Dawson said a record 87 cruise ships are booked to call in for the season, which runs from October through to April.

At today's ceremony, the Tianjin Bridge is being unloaded at the new wharf.

Dawson said the port had gone the extra distance to win local community and iwi support for the project.

"It's vital when you are a port right in the middle of your city - you have to make sure that your community go along with you on the journey.

"We made a lot of effort around the IPO to explain why the port needed to expand but equally to provide the opportunity for the community to remain invested in it."

Employees, local residents and iwi were given priority in the IPO process.

A big effort was also made to minimise the environmental impact of the new wharf, he said.

"Maintaining your social licence is a massive thing.

"Cities are built up around ports - that's how they start - and you have to make sure that you keep the people in the community aligned to that social licence."

Napier Port is the North Island's third biggest container terminal and the fourth largest in New Zealand by container volume.

Shares in the company - issued at $2.60 - rallied strongly when they debuted in August 2019.

They traded yesterday at $2.82.