Port Otago has shifted 208,000 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) for the year ended June, up from 205,000 the year before; meaning 15,000 fewer would be a 7.2% decline.
Port Otago gained the extra 15,000 ''transshipments'' across Port Chalmers' wharves a year ago, because of then changes to shipping giant Maersk's shipping routes, and similarly, will lose them with the latest route change; seemingly a windfall withdrawn.
Port Otago chief executive Kevin Winders said its daily rail service for containers from Timaru would continue, but the transshipments at Port Chalmers would cease.
''Given the ebb and flow of containers, and with two ports on either side of us, I can't guarantee it will be 200,000 TEUs [handled, this time next year],'' Mr Winders said.
The Rio-class ships will this month now leave Timaru then call at Port Chalmers, with expectations they will shift a day and call at Port Chalmers on a Tuesday, and depart on Wednesday.
Timaru's inclusion on the route will have no effect on services for Otago and Southland exporters, with six carriers in all calling at Port Chalmers, Mr Winders said.
Following a trial in May, Maersk has just confirmed it will call weekly at PrimePort Timaru with the larger Rio-class vessel, the port company there having widened its inner breakwater entrance from 90m to 140m, costing about $2.5million.
Port Otago has for several years offered a daily container rail service from Timaru, or had containers delivered to Port Chalmers on smaller vessels, then ''transhipped'' on to the larger export ships.
Late last month the Government announced KiwiRail was to get a $1billion boost, including replacement of ageing engines and container wagons, with 100 new locomotive and 900 wagons to replace old stock.
Mr Winders hopes the $1billion boost will assist in offsetting the transshipment loss.
''With more efficient rail movements in the South, that'll improve reliability and there should be better engines than the 40-year-old ones at present, and new rolling stock,'' he said.
He noted Port Otago also remained competitive, with its shipping channel dredged to 14m and the consents to go a further 1m deeper, should shipping lines use deeper draft vessels.
The revised port-call route will be from Brisbane to Sydney, Tauranga, Napier, Lyttelton, Timaru, Port Chalmers, Tanjung Pelepas in Malaysia, then Singapore and back to Australia.
For its half-year to December result, reported in March, overall transshipments were up 39%, from 12,000 TEU's the same time a year earlier, to 17,000.
Maersk's seven Rio-class vessels, capable of carrying 5900 TEUs, started arriving in Port Chalmers in late October, last year.
However, the Rios have plagued local communities with their loud generator noise at a variety of ports, including Port Chalmers and Lyttelton, since their introduction .
Mr Winders said with PrimePort Timaru ''coming on board'', he hoped that port company would join Port Otago and Lyttelton Port of Christchurch in combined efforts to retro-fit silencers on the ships, when they are alongside wharves. That retro-fitting is likely take several months to be introduced, Port Otago has said.
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You have to wonder how much the local protests over noise helped persuade Maersk to move the service.
The noisy locals who move into a home near a port then complain about the noise may well achieve their aim. The slow and steady decline of Dunedin as a commercial port. I'm quite sure the next step will be DCC trying to limit truck movement to and from Port Chalmers.