Northland Inc report finds Northport expansion could create economic boom

The Antwerp Bridge delivered a record number of containers to Northport on Wednesday. Photo / Northport

A Northland employment boom of more than 2600 new jobs could occur if the proposed expansion of Northport was given the green light, a report has shown.

The country's northernmost deep-water commercial port is pressing to extend the existing container port eastwards and add a shipyard capable of berthing a range of vessels as well as an environmentally sustainable drydock.

Northport could then accommodate increases in freight volumes already seen yesterday with the ship Antwerp Bridge, which delivered a record number of containers, with 1876 to be offloaded.

The planned expansion at Northport. Photo / Northport

The expansion would create 1500 jobs by 2060, and the shipyard and drydock an extra 1135, an independent report commissioned by the region's economic development agency Northland Inc says.

Vaughan Cooper, acting CEO of Northland Inc, said this scale of job creation would have positive ripple effects across the region's communities.

His claim was backed by Otago University Economics professor Dorian Owen, who said job creation in a region was always good for the wellbeing of residents, "because it creates income and then that gets spent locally and it sort of acts as a multiplier effect on the local economy".

Owen confirmed very few opportunities existed in New Zealand to create as many employment opportunities as were forecast with the expansion.

He said that was because the country being was dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises that tended to generate dozens or hundreds of employment opportunities rather than thousands.

And Northport's vision for growth wasn't an opportunity to be snubbed.

"I guess it's because employment is not evenly distributed in some areas and can end up with batches of unemployment which won't necessarily disappear," Owen said.

Northland's most recent annual unemployment rate was 3.6 per cent in the year to March 2022 - down 5 per cent from the previous 12 months but still higher than the national average of 3.4 per cent.

Jobs were not the only positive impact pegged in the report as the expansion was estimated to pump $160 million into the national GDP figures within the next 38 years, alongside $290m from the drydock and shipyard.

Cooper said Northport's growth would bolster the marine manufacturing sector, as well as infrastructure that would add to the region's "economic resilience for the future".

"The potential economic benefits of the expansion identified in the report are contingent on supporting infrastructure being completed, several of which rely on central government decisions," Cooper said.

"A rail spur to Northport and better roading connectivity to Auckland, as well as patient capital for the shipyard are outlined as influencing factors, as are the development of a marine skills cluster and full consultation around Te Tiriti o Waitangi conditions," he said.

Northport chief executive Jon Moore said they have openly shared how the port can play an integral role in the "resilient, geographically astute" supply chain strategy for the upper North Island.

"But only if decision-makers open their eyes to this potential and back our region with modern, 21st century transport infrastructure that Northland community and business leaders have been crying out for," Moore said.