Port of Tauranga

Contingency Plan During Ports of Auckland Strike

Posted on 29th November 2011

Having regard to the record volumes currently moving through Port of Tauranga, the existing berth priorities and the maximum rail capacity that can be made available at short notice, three additional service calls have been accepted to date;

Maersk Juan; Auckland imports will be discharged while the vessel is at Tauranga to load on its normal weekly service

Cap Mondego; Auckland import call of the ANZL service

ANL Burilla; Auckland import call of the PSW service

The San Aurelio Auckland import call is under consideration based on what rail capacity is available at the end of the weekend.

Significant additional resource on both rail and road is being arranged which should allow us to deliver in excess of 500 TEUs to MetroPort per weekday with further additional capacity available during the weekend. However, given the large volumes involved, we wish to advise that extended delivery times can be expected.
As a result of this new shipping programme, there are three other significant short term issues we request your assistance with:

- There is no capacity to load export cargo to the vessels diverted to Port of Tauranga through MetroPort during the strike. Only containers destined for export on services regularly loading at the Port of Tauranga as the last port will be accepted.

- We will not be able to respond to requests for urgent or special deliveries. These requests can severely disrupt train plans and usually require plant and equipment that will be prioritised to the loading and discharging of ships as well the increased volume through the road and rail exchanges.

- To enable the container yard to be managed as efficiently as possible, we are required to restrict delivery of export containers to the Tauranga Container Terminal for the next 2 weeks. As such, we advise that from Thursday 1 December, containers arriving for a ship more than five days before the advised vessel ETA (at the time of container delivery) will not be able to be received into the Terminal.

Port of Tauranga and KiwiRail's agreement to assist shipping lines during this period will place significant additional pressure on berth, equipment, labour and rail resources. We are also expecting there will also be some congestion and longer truck turn times at MetroPort as increased train load and discharge requirements compete with the delivery of import cargoes through the gate. While we will do all we can to make the operation as efficient as possible, we seek your assistance, cooperation and patience during this period as we endeavour to work together to alleviate some of the disruption caused by the industrial dispute at Ports of Auckland.

We are aware there is a second strike notice which could take effect from Thursday 8 December for a further 4 days. Should it proceed, our ability to handle additional shipping will depend on the volumes still needing to be moved after the first industrial action and the requirements of our regular services. We will keep you informed.

If you require clarification on any of the above, please contact me or Martyn McColgan, Manager Terminal Operations.