Auckland Port 'over capacity'

Ports of Auckland is at 'over capacity' for imported vehicles. “It’s a nightmare down there, importation is at highest-ever levels,” says John Davies, managing director of Autohub. He says dealers could face delivery delays of up to four days as Autohub works to clear the backlog. Davies says the port’s wharf has capacity for 4,000 vehicles, however about 5,800 units are “block stacked down there”. He says there are seven vessels, each carrying about 1,000 vehicles, waiting for access to the wharf to offload their cargo during the next seven days. “We are just asking importers to be patient as the situation will continue for another couple of weeks.” Davies says about 1,500 to 1,800 vehicles can be removed by transport companies each day but April’s series of three short working weeks has added to the problem.