Port of Tauranga increases net profits, cargo volumes

Net profit after tax and total cargo volumes for the 12-month period ended June 30 saw year-over-year increase growth of 1.1 percent and 2 percent, respectively.    The Port of Tauranga Limited increased net profits after tax for the 12 months ending June 30, 2015 1.1 percent to $79.1 million compared with the previous year.
   Revenues at the New Zealand port totaled $268.5 million for the financial year ending June 30, a 0.8 percent year-over-year increase.
   The port handled 851,106 TEUs for the year, 12 percent more than the prior 12 months. The company attributed the growth to the agreement it made last year with logistics provider Kotahi for the delivery of agreed volumes of container traffic to the port.
   Total cargo volumes stood at 20.2 million tons, a year-over-year increase of 2 percent.
   Imports rose 8 percent from the previous year to 6.9 million tons. The port attributed the growth in imports to the skyrocketing increase in cement volumes, which supported New Zealand’s strong construction industry. Cement volumes reported a year-over-year increase of 55 percent to 165,503 tons. In addition, car volumes, which reached 11,607 units, more than doubled.
   Exports remained flat at 13.3 million tons. Exports of dairy commodities, meat, kiwifruit and general freight increased, while exports of logs, sawn timber, apples, onions and steel decreased.
   The Port of Tauranga Limited has made many operational developments. The port acquired two new tug boats for port operations; commissioned a third mobile harbor container crane at the Timaru Container Terminal; ordered two new super post-panamax gantry cranes, which are scheduled for delivery in late 2016; and opened the Metro Port Christchurch at the end of July.
   In addition, the port will launch a dredging project at Tauranga Harbour in October. The project will deepen the shipping channels to a depth of 14.5 meters inside the harbor and 15.8 meters outside the harbor and is expected to be completed in late 2016.
   “With the dredging starting in October 2015 we will have the infrastructure in place to handle the 6,500-TEU ships in late 2016, and we expect container volumes to exceed 1 million TEUs in the 2016/2017 financial year,” Port of Tauranga Limited CEO Mark Cairns said in a statement.