New wharf opens door to many opportunities

Napier Port’s once in a generation build project Te Whiti, its 6th and largest wharf at 320m long, is set to start paying its way.

Looking ahead, Napier Port chief executive Todd Dawson wants to offer shipping lines and customers a unique and compelling proposition.

“Our teams are dedicated to maximising the additional capacity we now have with improved availability across all our wharves. We are set on providing increased flexibility and shipping options for customers and working to ease the supply chain pressures across the country especially in the North Island.”

Todd says the port is a gateway to a thriving region that offers high-value, indemand cargo, offering new flexible and efficient road and rail routes through to the wider North Island of New Zealand.

He says early indications for 2023 are that global shipping disruption and pricing is easing and a return to schedule reliability is starting to look more likely.

“This is good news as it will give greater certainty for customers and cargo owners to plan their operations, as well as our own team.”

He adds the new wharf has also enabled an uncongested port operation.

“Greater berth availability not only provides additional operational flexibility to meet our customers’ demands, but our improved operational performance also lends itself to future growth in container, bulk cargo and cruise ship visits to Napier.

It won’t be calm sailing though with inflationary pressures, rising costs and a tight labour market making for a challenging national environment which are a concern for Napier Port and many of its customers.

“Looking further afield, we are seeing inflationary pressures and rising geopolitical tensions continue to impact the global economic environment and create uncertainty related to both supply and demand.

Napier Port moved one of our highest volumes of cargo despite significant supply chain disruption, and the region and the underlying demand for its premium food and fibre products continues to grow steadily.

Todd sees new opportunities with renewable energy playing an essential role in the port sector.

“We are keen to use our position to influence others and help drive progress both inside and outside our port gates.

“Recently, we were excited to join with NZ-owned Hiringa Energy and focus on understanding the current and future opportunity for hydrogen to decarbonise Napier Port’s operations and logistics, as well as those of our tenants, port The Manawatū Inland Port (MIP), the port’s freight hub based at Longburn, near Palmerston North, is a key part of its landside logistics offering and as the surrounding region continues to grow the port logistics team is working hard to provide freight solutions for exporters and importers alike.

Todd and a team from Napier Port visited a number of ports and shipping lines in Europe in late 2022. Taking the opportunity to update its shipping line customers on the new capabilities and supply chain services that have

DIRECTION, STABILITY & CONFIDENCE IN YOUR PROJECT

Specialising in urban and environmental planning we bring direction, stability and confidence to resource management processes through thinking strategically and working constructively with all parties.

Learn been unlocked with Te Whiti and other strategic projects.

“We also shares news about our thriving region while it was also useful to gain some valuable insights into their side of the business and better understand the challenges and opportunities they are seeing across both the global and NZ environment.

Napier

“It was great to get on the ground at a number of ports and see what others are doing across their operations. Specifically, the team took the opportunity to look at technology around improving capacity, productivity and safety of our warehousing operations.

“Other observations from Europe are that they share similar economic concerns to us here at home, namely slowing economic demand, inflation, and ongoing labour supply issues. It was somewhat heartening to know that while the operating environment remains unpredictable and challenging, we are all working hard to tackle the challenges ahead.”

Exciting projects aimed to stimulate economy

Napier mayor Kirsten Wise predicts ongoing economic growth for Napier and Hawke’s Bay but expects residents will start feeling the pinch due to higher mortgage rates.

“Hawke’s Bay’s economy fundamentals are sound. The world wants our produce and wine, our visitor experiences, and our innovative thinking.

“We’ve bounced back really well and I’m very proud of what our business community has achieved. We do understand though that in 2023 mortgage owners across the country will move off what were fairly low interest rates and people will start to feel the squeeze.

To help stimulate the economy Napier City Council is bringing together economic, environmental, social and cultural needs in some exciting projects around the Inner Harbour including a new home for the twin-hulled ocean-going waka along with some inner CBD street enhancements.

“There are economic benefits to improving our visitor and tourism experience here but the new waka home is also an important project in terms of local heritage and history.

The Napier CBD will also get a makeover Clive Square/Lower Emerson St streetscape enhancement set to have a positive impact and attract new businesses.

“We have new businesses opening here including hospitality and wellness offerings and the Art Deco Trust is moving to the heritage Women’s Rest building.

Council has also approached government to fund a works programme to revitalise the area and strengthen its links to the rest of the CBD.

Kirsten says council will focus on supporting local businesses indirectly via organisations such as the Hawke’s Bay Chamber of Commerce, Napier Business Association and training organisations.

“We have strong ties to the business community and we want to leverage those to make sure we are collaborating and listening to where we can add value. That in turn helps business add value to our community.

“Napier has new businesses opening all the time including big players like Ziwi Petfood. Cruise ships are up there in terms of excitement and they bring a lot of benefits to our City and have impacts beyond economic in terms of creating a buzz in the CBD and giving locals opportunity to feel very proud of the city and show it off to an international market.

“That also applies to the Art Deco Festival. It’s going to be great to get back to business with that and enjoy a Festival that’s open and accessible and not marred by the pandemic.”

Kirsten says that although it’s important to attract new businesses and offerings to Napier, it’s just as important to support existing businesses who may be relocating to another area within Napier.

“Napier has new businesses opening all the time including big players like Ziwi Petfood. Cruise ships are up there in terms of excitement and they bring a lot of benefits to our City and have impacts beyond economic in terms of creating a buzz in the CBD and giving locals opportunity to feel very proud of the city and show it off to an international market.”