Port of Napier, the country’s fourth-biggest container port, posted a 3.7 percent decline in annual profit as it spent $34 million beefing up capacity, including a terminal expansion and buying two new mobile harbour cranes.
Net profit fell to $12.9 million in the 12 months ended Sept. 30, from $13.4 million a year earlier, the Napier-based company said in a statement. Profit was eroded by costs of extra staff as a result of its investment programme.
Revenue rose 7.6 percent to $72.1 million with a 17 percent increase in container volumes to 256,438, TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units). Still, cargo volumes were unchanged at 4.1 million tonnes with reduced Chinese demand for logs, timber and pulp exports.
“With a spend of $34 million required to help build terminal capacity, we expected some impact on the bottom line,” chairman Alasdair MacLeod said. “The investments we have made have resulted in increased productivity.”
Like a number of its rivals, the Napier port company is positioning itself as a hub for shipping in anticipation of visits by larger vessels, which would make fewer stops to pick up cargo that had been drawn from across central New Zealand.
Chief executive Garth Cowie said the company expects increased apple volumes and water exports in the coming year, which will offset the drop in dairy volumes when Kotahi, the logistics company owned by Fonterra Cooperative Group and Silver Fern Farms, combined its dairy logistics division with Tauranga’s Tapper Transport unit.
