KEY POINTS:
How can a port with ever-expanding cargo volumes take up less space?
Simple, say port critics, who point to empty wharves and storage depots and say the port is grossly inefficient.
Does the port really need to spread itself over 330ha between Westhaven and Mechanics Bay?
That's a sure way to pick an argument with the trucking firms, shippers and importers who stood firm with the port throughout the waterfront stadium debate.
Port chief executive Geoff Vazey says volumes are doubling every 10 years and the port now handles about 750,000 standard-size containers a year. That implies three million containers within 20 years, "so that's a lot of capacity we have to come up with".
Vazey says last month's deal with shipping giant Maersk has the potential to increase volumes by "a couple of years' growth" alone.
You threaten the wharves at the nation's peril. The port handles two-thirds of the country's imports and a third of exports. $11 billion a year flows into the regional economy from port operations and trade-related business. And it is directly or indirectly responsible for 155,000 jobs and 32 per cent of Auckland's GDP.
The city and the port "live and breathe together," says Vazey.
But there are options to confine operations to the eastern container port, there is a commitment to do so - and the stadium debate concentrated thinking about how it might happen more quickly.
The central finger wharves - Queen's, Captain Cook and Marsden - are used for conventional ships carrying cars and "breakbulk" cargo such as bananas and other chilled fruit.
More and more, conventional cargoes are switching to containers, although berths will always be needed for island traders.
Planned reclamation, new technology, logistical changes and investment in equipment will make it possible to accommodate conventional ships within the eastern wharves.
Bulk-storage ships which berth at Wynyard Wharf will also need to be accommodated at the eastern port under plans to free up the tank farm on the western reclamation.
The question is: How soon?
Vazey's answer runs the gamut from mudcrete, footprints, stacks, rubber-tyred gantries (RTGs) and straddle-carriers to computerisation and electronic despatch "so that truckies aren't accountants with wads of paper in their pockets".
Stage 1 of the reclamation to extend Ferguson Wharf is nearing completion and the port has resource consent to undertake stage 2 when it's ready.
There could be reclamation between Bledisloe and Ferguson, subject to resource consent. That wouldn't happen overnight.
"If you can increase your footprint [by reclamation] you can increase your stack [the number of stacked containers]," Vazey explains. "But technology has advanced to the stage where arithmetic says it's better to intensify the use than make the footprint bigger."
The port is eyeing the introduction of giant RTGs, which can stack containers six high, double the height of conventional straddle-carriers. Yet it is about to take delivery of big, new straddle-carriers.
It could cost as much as $100 million to convert the Ferguson terminal to RTGs and Vazey says they aren't necessarily ideal for the port's many customers who import relatively small volumes and want quick access. Freight companies will need to change the way they use the port, with booking systems introduced.
"With RTGs we would need every trucking company to come when we tell them to come, rather than what they've been doing for ever which is they come when they want to come.
"We're not going to make that change between now and 12 o'clock tomorrow."
The company had planned to begin phasing in RTGs within four to six years but has now "intensified consideration about when the change will take place".
Car stackers - lightweight, multi-storey parking buildings - popped up during the stadium debate as a way to consolidate imported car storage.
But Vazey says these reduce flexibility on multi-purpose wharves.
Dwell time - the length of time cargo sits on the wharf awaiting removal - is already low by international standards, he says. But there is scope for increased efficiency through new technology such as swipe cards and ID systems for paperless dispatch.
Shippers and car importers say more could be done to speed up the clearance of the 186,000 cars which pass through the port each year.
Customs and biosecurity checks could be completed offshore, port land at Pikes Pt developed for car storage, and more use made of rail.
Independent Motor Vehicle Dealers Association chief executive David Vinsen says importers and shipping companies want cargo shifted as quickly as possible but have no complaints about the port's efficiency.
Armacup Carlines chief executive Djarne Carlsen is wary of changes that might slow turnaround for car carriers.
Vinsen: "Shipping companies have international connections and don't want any slip back from the sorts of performance we have now. There's no one silver bullet. A whole raft of measures need to be dealt with."
Critics say the port company lacks the incentive to usher in changes in the wider public interest, but Vazey maintains that the stadium uproar was an eye-opener.
"We work very hard to be constructive. Because we are occupying such a wonderful site on a wonderful harbour, we have to."
* An earlier version of this story stated that 16,000 cars come through Auckland's ports each year. The figure for the year to June was 186,000 cars. The incorrect figure was repeated in Brian Rudman's column on December 4.
