IF there Is water,we’ll be there.
International <strong>Transport</strong> <strong>Journal</strong> 35-36 2013 Shipping & Ports15New Zealand islands move a little closer togetherA strategic North-South allianceContainer handling in New Zealand takes place mainly on the NorthIsland. A new deal between the North Island’s port of Tauranga and theSouth Island’s port of Timaru is now set to change this state of affairs.The port of Tauranga, located on thenorthern coast of New Zealand’s NorthIsland, is set to provide substantial assistanceto the port of Timaru, on theeast coast of the South Island. The objectiveof the exercise is to strengthenTimaru’s position as a marshalling pointfor South Island cargo. Tauranga handledmore boxes than the North Island’s portof Auckland for the first time last year,when its throughput stood at roughly563,000teu. The new leader is now set toinvest almost EUR 13 million in a newstrategic alliance. This sum will enable itto acquire a 50% shareholding in PrimePorts, the operator of the Timaru hub,lease PrimePort’s container terminal forup to 35 years and acquire the containerterminal’s operating assets. The port ofTauranga will set up a wholly-owned subsidiary,Timaru ContainerTerminal Limited, to operatethe facility. Thetransaction is subject toa Timaru district councilpublic consultation.The partners said thatthey expect their collaborationefforts to hasten theconsolidation of freightroutes in New Zealand,by facilitating a more extensive scheduleof coastal shipping and railway options.The number of vessels calling directly atSouth Island ports has declined recently,as shipping lines have increasingly rationalisedtheir services.New Zealand’s economy is now doingrelatively well. Though the countryentered a recession in 2009, as a resultTimaru (pictured) is set to benefit from Tauranga’s experience.of the economic downturn that startedin 2008, it again registered steady growthfrom 2010 onwards, with the improvementregistering at 3% in 2012. Exportsaccount for about 30% of GDP. Milkand dairy products, above all, as well asmeat and timber, are exported, mainly toAustralia, China and the USA. avwww.port-tauranga.co.nzPhoto: Port of TimaruHamburg benefits from Baltic servicesThe port of Hamburg is once again looking up. Germany’s largestgateway registered a total throughput of 68.1 milliont in thefirst six months of 2013, a 3.5% rise compared to the like-forlikeperiod last year. The container handling that predominatesin the universal port of Hamburg accounted for 46.5milliontthereof. The 4.5 million teu turned around represented a 2.1%improvement in the period under review. The satisfying containerthroughput was attributed to 2.6% growth in exports,bringing the total figure for the segment to 2.2 million teu. Importsrose by 1.7% to 2.3million teu. The throughput of loadedcontainers, which came in at 3.9million teu, was 2.4% higherthan in the same period last year. The handling of empty containers,which fell for the past two years in Hamburg, stabilisedat 600,000teu, or 0.2% up.These results show that Hamburg has successfully beaten thetrend registered in the largest seaports in the northern Europeanrange. They reported average downturns of 0.4% in throughputand 1.2% in the number of boxes. The positive recent developmentsin Hamburg’s Baltic Sea container services contributedsubstantially to these developments. A total of 1.1million teuwere transported between Hamburg and the Baltic Sea regionin H1, a plus of 8%. Seven new feeder services to and from theGerman hub now offer additional capacities, bringing the rangeof liner services to and from the Baltic Sea to more than 150feeder sailings a week.avwww.hafen-hamburg.deSurprising second quarter resultsFor some shipping lines there might be a light at the end ofthe tunnel at the conclusion of the second quarter of the currentyear. Market leader Maersk Line improved its profits fromUSD 227million in Q2/2012 to USD 439million at the end ofthe same quarter this year. The corporation said that the resultcould be attributed to lower bunker prices and vessel networkefficiencies. Whilst the line’s volumes rose by 2.1% its averagefreight rate fell by 13.1%.The USD 146 million loss reported by APL, the containertransport division of the Singaporean enterprise NOL may notlook very impressive, but the corporation was at least able toimprove the negative result registered in the like-for-like periodlast year by 39%.Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd group, in contrast, returned to theblack in the second quarter of the current financial year. Itreported a group profit of EUR20.9 million for the monthsApril to June 2013. It had made a loss of EUR 7.3million in thesame quarter of 2012. The operating result of EUR 66.7 millionwas more than twice as high as last year’s EUR 30.8million.Although intense competition in the industry led to unsatisfactoryrate levels, substantial cuts and a slight drop in the bunkerconsumption price were the main factors underlying the positivenet result.avwww.maersk.comwww.nol.com.sgwww.hapag-lloyd.com
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