Ports of Auckland released its results for the 2018/19 financial year last Friday.

“It has been a challenging year, but also a productive one,” said chief executive Tony Gibson. “It has been a year of incredible lows, with the death of our colleague when the machine he was driving tipped over. This was a tragic event and it has deeply affected everyone at the port.”

Gibson said it was also a year in which the port had made significant progress in transforming its business and preparing for the future.

“We have completed most of the infrastructure work for automation and we are in the final stages of testing before going live next year. Construction of our new car handling building is going well, we gained consent to dispose of dredged material at sea and we will soon seek consent to deepen our channel for larger container ships.”

The port is also making good progress on its rail-linked network of freight hubs, passing a significant milestone with the opening of the first customer facility at the Waikato Freight Hub for Open Country Dairy, in April. Also completed was construction of a new bridge and road access to the site.

“Volumes and profits are down this year as a result of reduced space due to automation work, the loss of a service and a cyclical decline in car and light commercial vehicle volumes,” said Gibson.

“As a result of the need to fund our investment programme, we reduced our dividend level and have not declared a final dividend for the FY19 year. For the financial years ending 30 June 2020 and 2021, Ports of Auckland anticipates paying a dividend of 20% of after-tax profits. For this year (FY19) we have paid an interim dividend of $18.6m.”

Gibson said once automation is live and the peak of investment has passed, the port would again be able to deliver a higher return and dividend level.

“Thanks to the hard work and dedication of our people, we continued to deliver good operational performance despite all the work taking place on the port. Our container crane rate fell, but not by much, and our multi-cargo team actually managed to speed up the removal of cars from the wharf. This is particularly notable given our dwell times were already world-class.

Automation brings significant productivity and sustainability benefits, but Gibson said it also affected some of the traditional roles in the port‘s industry, and a Future of Work programme had been initiated where staff learn and manage these new opportunities.

“We continue to value and empower our people by focusing on maintaining a positive safety culture, embracing diversity, and investing in training and development.  Our new lash platforms emphasise our commitment to safety, as they physically separate pedestrian stevedores from straddles thereby eliminating one of our critical risks.  We are the first port in New Zealand to introduce this innovation, and one of only a few in the world.”

Gibson said overall, the company was in good shape and good heart.

“The projects underway are a significant investment in our future and they are going well. We look forward to the year ahead, as automation comes on stream and we begin to see the results of the hard work of the last few years.”

The Ports of Auckland 2019 Annual Report can be found here:

http://www.poal.co.nz/media-publications/resultsandreviews/2019%20Annual%20Report.pdf