Year of Transformation for Ports of Auckland

New Zealand’s Ports of Auckland (POAL) today released its results for the 2018/19 financial year, saying that the container volumes are down 3.5% to 939,680 TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units) compared to 973,722 TEU for the pcp.

Group Revenue rose slightly to $248.1m from $243.2m in the previous corresponding period (pcp) and the net profit after tax was $53.9m million compared to $76.8m for the pcp.

“Significant progress has been made on the automation of our container terminal. Most infrastructure work is complete, and we are now in the final phase of testing,” said POAL.

“We have received consent to dispose of dredged material at sea, in one of five official New Zealand disposal sites. We are preparing a consent application to deepen our shipping channel and are aiming to lodge the application later in 2019.”

Commenting the latest announcement, Chief Executive Tony Gibson said: “It has been a challenging year, but also a productive one.”

“It has been a year of incredible lows, with the death of our colleague when the machine he was driving tipped over. This was a tragic event and it has deeply affected everyone at the port. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.”

“It is also a year in which we’ve made significant progress in transforming our business and preparing for the future. We have completed most of the infrastructure work for automation and we are in the final stages of testing before going live next year. Construction of our new car handling building is going well, we gained consent to dispose of dredged material at sea and we will soon seek consent to deepen our channel for larger container ships.”

A study is currently underway in to the future of the port with options being touted including shifting car imports to Northland, and shifting the port altogether.