As Ports of Auckland licks its wounds from having lost a large swathe of container throughput worth about $20 million from shipping giant Maersk, Port Otago is taking a long-term view of making more space available for a potential increase in container volumes.
Mediation between the Ports of Auckland and Maritime Union of New Zealand to settle a collective contract were reported yesterday to have failed, with more industrial action to follow.
Earlier this week, Ports of Auckland said it was likely to lose a further $3 million of revenue if the more than 300 MUNZ members continued strike action, with two 24-hour strikes planned this week and a 48-hour strike on December 30, which follows three 24-hour strikes earlier this month.
Ports of Auckland has offered a 10% pay rise to the 320 staff, with the proviso it gets full operational flexibility and productivity increases.
Port Otago chief executive Geoff Plunket was contacted yesterday and said there had been no disruption to southern exporters, and he did not believe the escalation of strike action on Auckland's wharves would have any effect.
At present for Port Chalmers, the dairy sector was putting through "high volumes" of dairy produce, but the real seasonal high would be from February to June next year with the exporting combination of dairy, meat, apples and fishing produce going across its wharves.
Mr Plunket said Port Otago was well positioned to cope with the throughput of the high season, but in anticipation of growing container volumes in the future, Port Otago was considering demolishing two large sheds occupying a large footprint at Boiler Point.
He emphasised the possibility of demolition was in the context of a five- to 10-year plan, with storage and packing "shed B" possibly located elsewhere, on- or off-site, to make room for more containers and to provide clear access to containers.
"There is finite [container storage] space within port. Everything has to be considered to achieve efficient shipping turnaround," Mr Plunket said.
The adjacent packaging "shed C" at Boiler Point would for the time being be retained, but was also under consideration for relocation in the future, he said.
In recent weeks Maersk, which is Port Otago's largest customer, pulled a shipping service from Ports of Auckland and redirected it to Tauranga, prompting disputed claims by Auckland the $20 million loss of business was because of the industrial action.
Maersk's withdrawal represents about a third of its business with Ports of Auckland; or about 12% of its container work.
Mr Plunket said the switch of services to Tauranga had not caused any problems for southern exporters.
Ports of Auckland chief executive Tony Gibson told The New Zealand Herald the two 24-hour strikes the union planned for December 22 to 25 "promise to be even more disruptive for consumers, importers and exporters".
"This is because the union has chosen to strike when KiwiRail is about to shut down its rail network for electrification works," Mr Gibson said.
He yesterday said five ships would be affected by the strike, the company facing a revenue loss of $500,000; the value of the trade disrupted by the stoppage was $260 million.
Ports of Auckland's Fergusson container terminal will remain open during this weekend's strike, with trucks able to pick up and drop off containers on Friday, with staff on individual employment agreements, managers and supervisors running the 11-hour shift.
