An advisory notice sent to the port company from the ministry stated that passengers on vessels arriving in New Zealand who had been in mainland China in the past 14 days should self-isolate on board.
Port of Otago chief executive Kevin Winders said its job now was to ensure the shipping companies complied with the ministry’s instructions.
‘‘As far as practical, impacts for our port is there’s really protocols around engaging with shipping lines and ensuring they’re following the protocols to ensure if they’ve got any at-risk crew members that possibly could have been ... interacting with Chinese ports or Chinese crews, that they’ve taken protocols to ensure they’re contained and isolated for 14 days.’’
He rated the port as being at extremely low risk of having someone arrive infected with coronavirus.
One container service came from China to the Port of Otago every week but there was a gap of 22 days between ship arrivals.
‘‘The risk of the corona[virus] coming through that avenue to our pilots or our cargo handlers is extremely low.’’
Over the weekend, Port Otago introduced new protocols to ensure vessels were able to confirm they had a ‘‘clean crew’’ and were taking the right steps before a port pilot went on board.
‘‘That’s a new protocol over the weekend that we’ve introduced just to have an additional level of security and to keep our people safe.’’
The port was watching events in China closely and regularly taking advice from the ministry, Mr Winders said.
The rules were the same for both shipping and cruise vessels, Mr Winders said, and he was confident cruise ships would be well aware of anyone with the coronavirus on board.
‘‘They’re very good at making sure they’re across the issues on their vessel. They have norovirus and other viruses on their vessels from time to time. They’re very good at isolating that and keeping pilots safe when isolated in that process.
‘‘I’m pretty confident they’ll be doing the right things.’’
Elsewhere, Port of Tauranga [PoT] chief executive Mark Cairns said there was ‘‘no question’’ coronavirus would hit export volumes, but he added the fallout would be short term.
The international hub port is New Zealand’s largest export port and its share price is already feeling the bite of investor jitters over the China-origin virus, closing on Friday at $7.58 after an $8 high in early January.
Mr Cairns expected exports for China from the forestry sector to slow and meat and dairy outbound volumes to also possibly be affected as parts of China continue to be locked down and quarantined having subsequent effects on Chinese industry and business sectors.
He said PoT expected to learn more this week about the situation at Chinese ports.
‘‘We’re keeping a close eye on it, but it will have an impact on our exports, no question. But it’s short term.’’
The company would give more guidance to the market in its interim 2020 financial year results announcement on February 28.
Mr Cairns noted PoT had weathered the effects of other global virus emergencies and economic crises and they had proved to be short term.
Log exports last year were already reflecting a sharp decrease in international prices and demand. In late October, the port company reported a drop of 5.2% in log export volumes to just over 1.7million tonnes in the first quarter of the 2020 financial year.
Dairy product exports also decreased, by 1.7%, compared with the corresponding July 1 to September 30 period in 2019. However, container volumes rose by 5.8%.
At the company’s annual meeting in October, Mr Cairns told shareholders that, based on the first quarter’s performance and notwithstanding any significant market changes, full-year earnings were expected to be between $96million and $101million — the same guidance range given for the 2019 year record result.
— Additional reporting from The New Zealand Herald
