IMAGINE Auckland developing Northland Port as a replacement port
for the super-city, financing the work from the sale of the $1 billion of prime
waterfront land owned by Ports of Auckland.
The scenario would see Ports of Auckland (POA) invest in Northland
Port by spending about a third of the
proceeds on upgrading the railway
between Auckland and Whangarei, building the rail link out to Marsden Pt
and transferring all of Auckland's waterfront container handling
infrastructure to Northland Port.
While a ``yeah, right'' reaction is likely from POA, former Northland Port
Corporation chair Mike Daniel says he's dead serious about suggesting the
strategy as an elegant win-win solution to the problems of both ports.
Northland Port would get the infrastructure development it needs to
exploit its unique natural assets (deep water; 180ha of flat, empty,
commercially-zoned land; site adjacent to New Zealand's only oil refinery).
The development would get rid of the growing problems of congestion,
conflict and poor profits at the Ports of Auckland waterfront site.
Aucklanders ``would be able to reclaim their magnificent waterfront now
increasingly dominated by huge gantries and ever-higher stacks of
containers''.
``It is ridiculous for POA to continue investing hundreds of millions of
dollars in infrastructure and dredging when given a financial leg-up
Northland could comfortably receive and transfer cargoes to Auckland,'' he
says.
``POA could continue to develop its successful `inland ports' or depots on
the outskirts of Auckland and spend the balance of the proceeds of the sale
of its prime waterfront land on investments which could earn double its
present low after-tax profit _ considering the money being spent on
infrastructure _ of $25 million,'' he says.
Spending up large on Northland Port would probably mean a merger
between POA and Northland Port, but the ports were already closely
interlinked. This would also mean a de facto merger between these ports and
the Port of Tauranga, which owns half of Northland Port.
Mr Daniel says with strike action ongoing following POA's attempt to cut
costs by introducing a new roster system aimed at increasing workforce
flexibility, and trade and profits bleeding away to the booming Port of
Tauranga, there will never be a better moment than now for Northland to
highlight its potential.
Other Northlanders are also seizing the day by calling for an end to
costly ``port wars'' and an integrated approach to port planning; while
several leading national economic and political commentators are doing
hatchet jobs on the poor performance and grand plans to further expand
wharves and deepen the sea lane into Auckland harbour (which apparently
involves blowing up rocks at the end of Rangitoto Is).
Northland Chamber of Commerce CEO Tony Collins says ``it seems
ludicrous that they are not looking at Northport more closely as a future
option.
``It's in the interests of all the shareholders to have these three ports
operating to capacity and not in a manner which is detrimental to any of the
others. Developing Northland Port's capacity would be a real game-
changer.''
He said even a portion of what Tauranga and Auckland were planning to
spend on expanding wharves and dredging would pay for the Auckland-
Whangarei line upgrade, a branch line out to Marsden Pt and container
infrastructure.
``We should all be saying, look, these are our assets in all our ports, how
can we use these to best serve the country as a whole?''
Northland Port Corporation director Ian Walker, who represents
majority owner the Northland Regional Council, said Marsden Pt had not
really been considered from a national perspective. Port rationalisation
would deliver more efficient port services at better prices ``with a lot less
capital investment''.
``We have a massive amount of land and could streamline a lot of
movement of cargo, and the space makes it ideal for entry of say imported
second-hand cars which can't be stacked.
``There is also plenty of room for associated services like mechanical and
bio-security checks. We could make that land very, very attractive to
companies and investors to locate there. We are already an export port for
logs and dairy products from our own hinterland and certainly have the
capacity to become a major export port given the right infrastructure. If we
could just get the politicians to start thinking about port planning in terms
of `New Zealand Inc'.''
History had shown that leaving decisions on port rationalisation to local
government politicians was fraught with delay and procrastination.
``There needs to be clear direction from somebody who will say `okay,
how are our ports going to deliver a service that is in the best interests of
New Zealand?''
John Parker, who chairs both Northport Ltd and board of the Port of
Tauranga, said Tauranga had accepted an invitation to build Northland Port
with the Northland Port Corporation because it believed the port would be
a great long-term asset, but without a rail connection it could never be a
container port.
``And rail currently seems to be `field of dreams stuff',''he said.
NRC chair Craig Brown said Northland was well-placed to be the service
port for the growing super-city but asks how government can enforce port
rationalisation under the current ownership model _ ``are shareholders
going to be told to divest themselves of their shares _ it's a pretty delicate
situation.''
He said the council had asked Northport to report on ways of putting
incentives in place to encourage greater use of the land bank. ``A majority of
NPC shareholders have made it very clear they are keen to see things
happen,'' he said.
Prime Minister John Key even said on TVNZ Breakfast last week
``Auckland needs a highly-efficient port and one that operates well. And if it
doesn't have that, it will naturally lose business...to Tauranga or to
Whangarei.''
Meanwhile Northland Port is quietly sitting out the slug-fest, exporting a
couple of million tonnes of logs a year, and wondering when someone will
look north for solutions.
The three northern ports are already closely linked: Northland
Port was a joint venture development between Tauranga and
Northland Port Corporation and the two port companies share
ownership of the port; Tauranga port chair John Parker also chairs
Northport Ltd: POA is the second biggest shareholder in Northland
Port Corporation after majority shareholder, the Northland Regional
Council.
New Zealand ports were formerly overseen by a single organisation,
the New Zealand Ports Authority. This was replaced in 1988 by port
companies which were required to operate as commercial entities and
compete for trade.
Critics say the resulting rivalry has led to wasteful duplication of
infrastructure _ the so-called `port wars'.