Port of Tauranga shares rose 12 cents to $9.40 today after the regional port that wants to come out on top of port consolidation reported higher earnings from diverse sources.
Port of Tauranga increased annual underlying net profit by 17.2 percent to $57.9 million in the year to June 30 from a year ago.
Chief executive Mark Cairns highlighted the performance of the container terminal, increases in import volumes and a 47 percent rise in earnings from associate and subsidiary companies, which now contribute 21 percent of group profit.
This allowed him to argue that the port was not just a "log play" and not just an export port.
Ports are jostling to be chosen to handle larger ships expected to make just one or two calls in this country in the future.
Port of Tauranga was handling more containers from Nelson and Wellington shipped by coastal ships and it was hoping to pick up Fonterra product currently moving out of New Plymouth, Mr Cairns said.
It already moves imports to Auckland via rail to a site in that city called MetroPort and its adjacent new MetroPack facility, with packing and warehousing facilities, has picked up Carter Holt Harvey as a customer.
The purchase of Auckland's Tapper Transport means that Port of Tauranga now delivers containers to rival Ports of Auckland both by truck and train.
Mr Cairns said that Port of Tauranga was traditionally an export port but in its latest result import container volumes rose by 27 percent.
"That is signalling a market share shuffling," he said.
The port is hopeful it will pass the final hurdle of an Environment Court process next month to allow it to deepen its shipping channel to 14.5m at low water. It would not rush to dredge to this depth but would move in stages.
Trade volumes in the year to June rose 12 percent from a year earlier to more than to 15.4 million tonnes, while revenue rose 25.2 percent to $185.4m.
Container traffic rose 15 percent to 590,506 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) and now represented 40.5 percent of total trade through the port.
Activity at MetroPort rose 20 percent to 138,000 TEUs.
Strong demand for commodity exports, particularly from Asia, and rising confidence in the dairy sector boosted break-bulk cargo volumes, the company said. Dairy trade through the port rose 4.6 percent to 588,000 tonnes.
Log export volumes rose 14.5 percent to 4.4m tonnes, while fertiliser import volumes rose 64 percent to 530,000 tonnes, and grain and dairy food supplement cargoes rose 26 percent to 1.1m tonnes.
Port of Tauranga's five associate companies and subsidiary Tapper Transport, with activities including on-wharf logistics and container cleaning and traditional port operations, contributed a net $12.4m to group net profit, up from $8.5m in 2010.
A final dividend of 21c per share is to be paid, on top of the interim dividend of 10cps, an increase of 6.9 percent on last year's dividend payout.
Mr Cairns said that while kiwifruit volumes held up during the year, the Psa bacterial vine disease was likely to weigh on export volumes as the disease begins to harm plant productivity.
Log export volumes had continued to strengthen over the year and the demand for New Zealand commodities looked to be robust for the foreseeable future with increased demand primarily from China and growth also coming from India.
