Full steam ahead for Metroport

By Yoke Har Lee

Port of Tauranga's inland port, Metroport, will boost the company's current financial results, providing what chief executive Jon Mayson describes as "extremely positive" outlook for the current year.

Container volume, which rose 21 per cent last year, has been growing around 10 per cent this year. But clinching shipping line ANZDL as its first and only dry port customer will boost annual volume by around 50 per cent to around 160,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent).

Mr Mayson signalled that he woukd not be disappointed with the year just ended.

"I would like to think we'll have good results. Having ANZDL come on board in the last month has been an encouraging sign of things to come. We are looking forward to a great year. Log volumes have been healthy, so it is extremely positive."

For the financial year ended June 1998, the port made an after tax profit of $11.68 million. Analysts polled by The Estimates Directory put the port's mean forecast profit at $15.9 million this year and $17.7 million for 2000.

Metroport is situated in Onehunga within Tranz Rail's 67-acre container services site. At present, Metroport is active mainly at weekends, timed with ANZDL's shipping schedules. ANZDL may be the sole customer for Metroport, but adding new clients was not a priority, Mr Mayson said.

But how viable is Metroport with only one customer?

"I'd say with ANZDL and the amount of volume they are putting through, it is viable already. If that's the way it pans out (having one customer), ANZDL's business will make this operation work," he said.

Discussions were ongoing to market the inland port concept to a few other shipping lines but so far, nothing had been signed.

"We anticipate additional business to come in the year. But this is not going to be all things to all people. It will only serve certain services. You have to remember this is a shipping line-designed service, so the rail operates shuttle trains around the lines," Mr Mayson said.

Metroport worked because it was not a high-cost operation, Mr Mayson said.

"It is not heavy on infrastructure. We have two hectares of standing land, 450 metres of track, 50 reefer points, extension of the Navis system (container tracking system) - in terms of cost it is not great. Metroport involves, probably, 10 people on the ground, under contract."

To expand the Metroport, however, would require commitment from not only Port of Tauranga but Tranz Rail, a crucial link in the service. Metroport's services were contracted to Tranz Rail.

To enable Metroport to expand its services to seven days a week, for instance, would require additional infrastructure within Port of Tauranga, as well as commitment by Tranz Rail for additional rolling stock.

Mr Mayson said despite some teething problems, Metroport had proved the logistics can work.

"So now we just fine tune ourselves so customers know us, our culture. This is a quantum leap for Tauranga, it is an increase in volume of 55,000 TEUs per year - so all our efforts have been concentrated solely on getting this whole thing down," he said.

Transport operators who were not used to Port of Tauranga are just coming to terms with it, he said. "We are following up on areas of concern - it would be fair to say that although there were some initial glitches as you would expect in a new service, things have bedded in well and we are making some of the improvements we want to make."