The $1.3b megaship Ovation of the Seas has been confirmed to visit next year but in Auckland passengers may have to be ferried from the ship to shore in small boats.

Wellington port company CentrePort has been fined over the death of a staff member who died in a warehouse accident.

Owners of a new generation mega cruise ship heading for New Zealand say they welcome plans by Ports of Auckland to extend its container wharves.

Ovation is still being built at a shipyard in Germany and when finished will be 348m long and 168,666 gross registered tonnes.

Over the past month, Ports of Auckland has made announcements about its intention to extend wharf structures out from Bledisloe Wharf.

Four firefighters have been taken to hospital as a precaution after a shipping container containing insect repellent caught fire in west Auckland this afternoon.

Auckland's Mayor is seeking an urgent explanation from Ports of Auckland after it announced plans yesterday to begin demolishing the end of Marsden Wharf next week.

Auckland Mayor Len Brown is seeking an urgent explanation from Ports of Auckland after it announced plans today to begin demolishing Marsden Wharf next week.

A mission to Mars will be mankind's next giant leap. But one expert has suggested it might be simpler to get to the red planet in a series of smaller jumps - using asteroids as stepping stones.

Take a look at the German launch of a megaship so big that Auckland will expand its wharf for its visit

Collisions, ill-timed power failures, near misses and fires are among more than 50 dodgy incidents involving ships around our coasts over the past year.

Lyttelton Port of Christchurch has disclosed a $1 billion development plan as rival Port of Tauranga signs one of the country's biggest logistics groups up to its terminal in Timaru.

Shipping giant Maersk Line, and Fonterra-backed logistics company Kotahi have signed 10-year contracts aimed at supporting the port's plan to deepen its channel by 2016.

China blocked the formation of a global alliance by the world's three biggest shipping lines sending AP Moeller-Maersk shares tumbling.

A waterfront dispute has broken out between two of New Zealand's biggest ports, arguing about who is the best.

New Zealand manufacturers are increasingly moving offshore to stay afloat, but there are other options, says Steve Nicholson

The proposal to block the glorious views from Queens Wharf to the North Shore cones and the inner gulf islands is not a positive vision, writes Brian Rudman.

As shipping companies chase profits, they're building the biggest freighters the world has ever seen.

The mystery of how 165kg of cocaine was slipped into a New Zealand shipping container of milk powder remains unsolved, according to an official report.

An Australian ship detained at Wellington's port this week was found to be "crawling with beetles" that had the potential to harm local insect species.