Port of Tauranga moved less cargo across its wharves in the year to June than it did the year before, and made more money doing it than it ever has.
New Zealand’s largest port reported an underlying group net profit after tax of $155.3 million for the 12 months to 30 June 2026, up 23 per cent on the $126 million it made the year before. Revenue rose 4.7 per cent to $486.5 million and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation climbed 17.6 per cent to $275.7 million. Operating costs went the other way, falling 6.2 per cent to $221.7 million. Shareholders get a full year ordinary dividend of 20.5 cents a share, up 22.8 per cent on last year.
Total trade through the port fell 3 per cent to 24.6 million tonnes, with exports down 3.3 per cent to 15.9 million tonnes and imports down 2.3 per cent to 8.7 million tonnes. On those numbers the port earned about $19.80 of revenue for every tonne of cargo it handled, against roughly $18.40 a year earlier, a lift of close to 8 per cent. Less cargo, more money per tonne of it, and a much bigger share of each dollar left over after costs, with the margin between revenue and operating earnings widening from about 50 per cent to nearly 57 per cent.
“This is a strong result, achieved against a backdrop of difficult economic conditions, lower trade volumes and ongoing berth capacity constraints,” chair Julia Hoare said.
The headline reported profit tells a different story because of one-off items on both sides of the comparison. Reported net profit after tax was $156.1 million, down 10 per cent on the previous year’s $173.4 million, which had included a $49.2 million gain from the creation of the Northport Group. This year’s figure included a smaller one-off gain from repositioning two properties for sale. Underlying earnings, which strip those items out, are the number that hit a record.
Container volumes barely moved, up 0.4 per cent to 1,213,494 twenty foot equivalent units, and that flat headline hides a swap. Export boxes rose 2.4 per cent to 512,765 units and import boxes rose 2.5 per cent to 411,340, a combined gain of roughly 22,000 containers. Transhipment volumes, the boxes moved from one ship to another at Tauranga on their way somewhere else, fell 5.5 per cent to about 289,000 units, a loss of close to 17,000 containers that cancelled out most of the gain. The port put that down to changes in shipping services and to berth capacity constraints in Tauranga.
That is the same squeeze we reported in May, when the container terminal was turning away new shipping services at the peak of a record kiwifruit season. The accounts now put a number on it. Transhipment is the most mobile cargo a port handles, because a shipping line can sort its boxes at any hub in the region, and it is the first thing to go when berths are full.
Two of the year’s biggest volume falls came from outside the port’s control. Log exports fell 8.1 per cent to 5.8 million tonnes, a drop of roughly half a million tonnes, which the port attributed to higher fuel costs caused by the conflict involving Iran prompting some exporters to cut back harvesting in the second half of the year. Diesel is the largest input in getting a log from a hillside to a wharf, and our coverage of the fuel supply five months into the Hormuz crisis traced how much of that cost landed on domestic freight.
The other fall was a sign of things going right elsewhere. Coal imports for Genesis Energy dropped 64.8 per cent as stockpiles at Huntly Power Station stabilised and South Island hydro generation covered winter demand. Imported coal is what the electricity system falls back on in a dry year, so a collapse in the volume crossing the wharves at Mount Maunganui is one of the better indicators that the lakes held up.
Food exports went the other way. Direct dairy exports rose 3.9 per cent to 2 million tonnes and kiwifruit exports rose 8.5 per cent to a record volume, with growth forecast to continue, pushing refrigerated export containers to a record for the port. Chilled cargo needs power, plugs and space, and it is the part of the trade least able to wait for a berth.
Which brings the result back to the wharf itself. The port has been trying for years to extend its berths under the Stella Passage development, which would add 385 metres to the Sulphur Point container berth in two stages and 315 metres to the Mount Maunganui wharves by converting cargo storage land inside the existing port footprint. After appeals against a partial Environment Court approval, the port took the full project to the Government’s fast-track process. On 17 August a fast-track panel released a draft decision proposing to grant every approval sought, subject to conditions, with a final decision due in early September.
“This is critical, national infrastructure that will pave the way for the next stage of growth at the Port, and for all of its cargo customers,” Hoare said.
The port also said it has not been able to reach agreement with tangata whenua on mitigating the project’s cultural effects, and that it remains committed to continuing to work with local iwi and hapū.
Chief executive Leonard Sampson pointed to how much more the port squeezed out of the berths it already has. “We’re seeing good improvements in service delivery to our customers, with our average crane productivity increasing 9.9% to 30.8 moves per hour, and ship rates increasing 13.6% to 76.5 moves per hour. These improvements were supported by on-time vessel arrivals climbing from 62% to 71% over the previous year,” he said.
Ship visits rose by three to 1,445, while cruise ship visits fell 16 per cent to 79, in line with a national trend. Spending on the future continues either way. The second stage of the dredging programme to deepen the shipping channels is due for completion by mid 2027, and the port has moved to contract negotiations with a preferred vendor for electric automated stacking cranes, timed to arrive with the berth extension. In early August it took delivery of six more hybrid straddle carriers and New Zealand’s first fully electric straddle carrier, joining seven hybrids that use around 25 per cent less fuel than the older diesel electric machines.
Port of Tauranga expects underlying earnings of between $160 million and $175 million in the 2027 financial year, with a first quarter trading update at its annual meeting of shareholders on 29 October. The capacity constraints stay until Stella Passage is built, the same bind that pushed Lyttelton to commit $821 million to a new wharf earlier this month. New Zealand’s biggest ports are running out of room at roughly the same time, and the country’s exporters will pay for whichever one gets its berths finished first.
What do you think, should the country be building port capacity faster, or is squeezing more out of the wharves we already have the smarter bet? Leave a comment below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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