By Yoke Har Lee
Canadian-owned carrier Australia New Zealand Direct Line (ANZDL) has dropped Ports of Auckland as a port of call in favour of Port of Tauranga.
The deal gives Tauranga a maiden client for its inland port in South Auckland. It also boosts Tauranga's status as being the gateway for a significant amount of New Zealand exports.
For Ports of Auckland, this means a loss of just under 10 per cent of its total annual container volume of 499,000 TEUs.
ANZDL currently uses Auckland as a hub port but will from early June use Tauranga to run a fixed-day weekly service to America, Australia and the Pacific Islands.
General manager of ANZDL John Pascoe told the Business Herald: "We will be the first customer for Metroport's facility. It is quite a change in concept - there is an alternative available. It is not necessarily price driven. A lot of it is due to the fact customers requested us to look at the option.
Mr Pascoe said ANZDL's move to Port of Tauranga was backed by the ability of Metroport Auckland (which runs Tauranga's inland port) to facilitate imports being delivered to the South Auckland region. This was complemented by Tauranga being a natural gateway for export commodities such as kiwifruit, meat, forest products and dairy cargo.
He said ANZDL would be offering the same price structure to customers but there would be some who would find cost savings from the new arrangement.
"There is a high possibility that some [export] customers will get benefit from it with lower inland costs to get their cargo to the port. And for the importers, they may find there is reduced transportation cost in Auckland, particularly those in the South Auckland area, Mr Pascoe added.
For importers, the first containers would be available at Metroport six hours after discharge. ANZDL vessels arrive from Australia on a Saturday and from North America on a Sunday. Cargo will be available at Metroport no later than 7am each Monday.
Mr Pascoe said ANZDL was able to reach an agreement with Port of Tauranga for a guaranteed berth at Sulphur Point Terminal, giving it ability to manage its schedules.
Port of Tauranga's chief executive, Jon Mayson, said: "We are naturally grateful that ANZDL is our first Metroport customer. This could not have happened without our partnership with Tranz Rail, and with ANZDL being able to look at the alternative. It is an exciting and important stage in our growth. It demonstrates competition is alive and well in the New Zealand port industry.
Port of Tauranga is now hopeful other carriers will be encouraged to look at Tauranga's inland port concept. "With this announcement, we believe the market will see that we are serious about Metroport.
He would not discuss whether Tauranga offered ANZDL much reduced port service charges. "I have no idea what they were paying in Auckland. We sat down with our customer and offered them a package that met their needs,
Mr Mayson said.