Port expects rise in earnings

Port of Tauranga expects full-year earnings in the range of $79 million to $83m, an increase on the $77.3m reported for 2016, according to a speech published to the NZX.

Chief executive Mark Cairns told shareholders at their annual general meeting that the forecast was given on the assumption that there would be no significant change to market conditions.

The prediction would bring the port’s profits back into line with the $79m achieved in 2015. It had forecast a profit of $79.8m for 2016, a forecast it missed.

Shareholders in the Mount Maunganui- based company were told that it had been a “reasonably positive” start to the financial year, with trading up 5 per cent, log volumes up 16 per cent, dairy up 12 per cent and container volumes rising by 3 per cent.

Parent net profit after tax was up 10 per cent and group net profit after tax rose 6 per cent on the previous corresponding period.

Cairns told his investors the port expects to see log exports recover to 2015 levels.

Chairman David Pilkington repeated his criticism of a Ports of Auckland proposal to build a new mega-port on the Firth of Thames to accommodate cargo growth over the next few decades. “We have seen no economic justification for this idea, nor have we been privy to the

assumptions that led to it.”

Edwin Mitson