Napier Port Raises the Bar

The New Zealand’s Napier Port today released its annual results for the 2018 financial year, with new records set for cargo and cruise.

In the year to 30 September 2018, Napier Port celebrated handling a total of 5.1 million tonnes of cargo. A record 2.2 million tonnes of logs were exported to markets across the world, up from 1.6 million tonnes last year, the port said in its release.

A total of 266,006 containers (TEU) passed through the port’s container terminal, and the port’s onsite packing operation handled a record 51,126 TEU containers.

Commenting the latest news, Napier Port Chief Executive, Todd Dawson, said that the new cargo record is a reflection of the strength of the Hawke’s Bay economy and the success of the region’s businesses: “One of the challenges we have ahead of us is how we deal with congestion on the water. With larger ships now calling at Napier, we frequently need to move other ships off the wharf and out to anchor in order to get larger ships into the port.”

“We have a major investment program ahead of us, with the build of a new wharf and the associated investment in dredging, along with the people and equipment needed to run that wharf efficiently.”

In November, Napier Port was granted resource consent to build a sixth wharf, which will service the container terminal and free up other wharves for the growing log and general cargo trade.

According to the official statement, it will also allow the cruise ships Napier Port currently turns away to visit the region and mean the port can accommodate larger vessels that are too big for its current facilities.