Lyttelton: Shocks nearly as bad as big one

Lyttelton Port. Photo / Supplied

Monday's aftershocks hit Lyttelton Port almost as hard as February's earthquake, its chief executive says.

The NZX-listed company - which last month lifted its full-year net profit forecast from $10 million to $12 million - has already written off $22.6 million of assets as a result of the first Canterbury quake on September 4.

Chief executive Peter Davie said the port's wharves, pavements, seawalls and oil berth suffered further damage from Monday's aftershocks, and a repair work programme already underway had been affected.

No staff were injured, he said, and engineering assessments were being done.

Shares fell 2c to close at $2.26 last night.

"We've got wharves that have problems with piles and then we've got a couple of container cranes that have popped off their rear legs," he said. "I guess the level of hit is very similar [to the February 22 quake], but it compounds [previous damage]."

Davie said around half the port remained closed yesterday afternoon, including coal shipping facilities. It would be three to four days before it completely reopened.

"We expect some of the ships will divert [to other ports] in the short term - the cargo will get away."

Davie said he didn't know the cost of Monday's damage.

Lyttelton Port - which shipped 1.2 million tonnes of coal in the six months to last December - has business interruption insurance as well as cover for reinstating and restoring assets as a result of events such as earthquakes, according to its interim report.

Meanwhile, other Christchurch businesses were picking up the pieces yesterday.

New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association chief executive John Walley said the tremors would have returned a number of firms to the situation they faced after the February 22 earthquake.

"It's not quite as bad [as February], but there's that liquefaction problem in Bromley and Woolston and the south of the CBD," he said.

Lack of electricity and water in some areas, as well as staffing issues caused by school closures, placed additional pressure on businesses.

Woolston Engineering manager Brent Pidgeon said he was up a ladder fixing a motor to a piece of equipment when the first aftershock rocked the city, and had returned to finish the job when the second one hit.

"It was pretty hairy," he said.

Shelving was sent crashing to the floor and Pidgeon said staff were working on getting machinery back into workable condition yesterday.

Continuing aftershocks made for a challenging environment in which to run the business, which supplied engineering services to local manufacturing companies and employed four staff, he said.

"All your customers end up doing what we're doing - putting all their stuff back together - so no work is coming in," he said.

Canterbury Employers' Chamber of Commerce chief executive Peter Townsend said he didn't expect Monday's events to have a big negative impact on the city's commercial sector.

But the aftershocks had created more uncertainty about the future and the psychological effect on employees was significant.

Townsend said about 8000 people had left Christchurch since the September 4 earthquake, and Monday's aftershocks may have been the last straw for other residents who had the option of leaving.

"But on the other hand, we know that Christchurch is going to be the construction capital of New Zealand for the next 10 years," he said. "We anticipate that's going to require between 18,000 and 20,000 [new] jobs."

BNZ economist Craig Ebert said this week's aftershocks - while they caused obvious disruption - did not change the bank's forecasts for the overall economy, or for inflation.

"On that basis we see no need to change our view on OCR policy going forward," he said.