Port boss wants car imports to stay put

The chief executive of Port of Auckland Ltd (POAL) says he is keen to retain vehicle-import operations at their current site, warning any effort to shift them elsewhere will come at a cost to the environment.

Roger Gray, pictured, also told Auckland councillors the financial value of that part of the business means it is “one of the last trades I want to see moved”, reports the NZ Herald.

He said the number of vehicles crossing POAL’s wharves from the start of July to the end September this year was 19.1 per cent higher than in the same period of 2022.

Gray noted the rise in car volumes, including one week recently when 1400 Ford Rangers arrived at the port, was a key driver behind the company being ahead of budget in the first quarter of the 2024 financial year.

Addressing the Council-Controlled Organisation Direction and Oversight Committee, he told councillors the best way to progress towards a low-carbon supply chain was for vehicle imports and the whole port to remain where they are.

“It would add 15,000 tonnes of carbon emissions a year if we shifted the roll-on, roll-off [vehicles] operation. We would more than double our carbon footprint if all our operations moved.”

His comments come as Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has expressed a desire to shift some of POAL’s operations out of the city centre, including vehicle imports, and convert more of the wharves to public use.

The NZ Herald notes Gray also told the October 12 meeting he wants POAL to become “New Zealand’s number one premium import port” and it no longer has its sights set on being bigger than Port of Tauranga.

Tauranga became the country’s main container port in 2015 and handled 1.18 million containers last year, compared with Auckland’s 819,000.

Gray said he is content to let the Bay of Plenty site remain ahead of POAL on that front, adding that he would not drop prices to get more market share and only wanted “profitable volume”.