The TrusTed voice of The auTo indusTry for more Than 30 years
www.autofile.co.nz
September 2017
Port to tackle car processing times The boss of New Zealand’s biggest port wants to continue working with the motor-vehicle industry to speed up processing times
P
orts of Auckland Ltd (POAL) has pledged to continue working with the automotive sector to mitigate the effects of continued heavy demand for new and used vehicles coming into the country. The pressure placed on the port by the industry will only increase, says chief executive Tony Gibson, and this “will continue to be supported by the replacement of ageing vehicles, strong economic growth and a move to electric cars”. He adds: “We are working closely with all parts of the motor-vehicle supply chain to help address issues and find ways to get cars off the port faster.” The company is also liaising with industry and stakeholders to increase capacity and reduce the visual impact of vehicles. Car and light commercial imports through Auckland
increased for the financial year ending July 31 to 297,383 units – up by 20 per cent from 2015/16 and Gibson predicts continued strong numbers for this financial year. In addition, container volumes rose by five per cent to 952,331 20-foot equivalent units, and break-bulk and bulk volumes, which include vehicles, jumped by 11.4 per cent to 6.46 million tonnes.
Demand for these services looks set to continue. Light-vehicle imports have already exceeded the forecast for 2041 made by PwC in 2012 in its upper North Island port study, and now exceed upper
forecasts predicted in 2015 by the NZ Institute of Economic Research. As well as cars, roll-on roll-off vessels carry a range of heavy vehicles and project cargo, such as trucks, buses, diggers and giant earth-moving equipment, tractors, planes, helicopters and boats. This all means wharves are operating well above capacity. As a result, POAL has seen an increase in the number of ships having to wait at sea or at berth until space can be cleared. “Dwell times are already low,” says Gibson. “This year cars stayed on wharf for an average of 2.9 days, but even small improvements will help alleviate congestion at peak times.” He emphasises that many of the reasons for delays in clearing cars off POAL’s wharves are supply-chain issues. “Examples are the need for more trucks and drivers to move vehicles off-port, and for compliance centres
Specialised training that’s proven to increase profits Giltrap Group gets new home p 8
Trade Me dominates vehicle market p 14
JAMA report p 18 highlights EV sales
GT4 unveiled
[continued on page 4]
GLOBAL VEHICLE LOGISTICS NZ - JAPAN - AUSTRALIA - UK - EUROPE
p 25