Latest news with #PanPac
RNZ News
20-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Napier port profits show recovery from Cyclone Gabrielle
A container ship at Napier Port. Photo: Supplied / Napier Port The port of Napier has had a strong profit rebound as the regional economy recovered from Cyclone Gabrielle lifting cargo volumes and revenue. Key numbers for the six months ended March compared with a year ago: The country's fourth biggest port benefited from the recovery of the broader regional economy from 2023's Cyclone Gabrielle, which disrupted horticulture, timber and wood products exports and damaged the port and transport links. Chief executive Todd Dawson said a return to regular and normal trading conditions, especially for key customers, was behind the profit lift. "The full resumption of Pan Pac's pulp and timber operations has driven a notable increase in dry export container volumes. Meanwhile, favourable growing conditions led to an earlier apple harvest, boosting refrigerated container throughput," Dawson said. The bottom line result was also boosted by a final insurance payment of $7.5 million. The gain in container volumes offset a fall in bulk cargo as fewer logs were exported, and revenue from cruise ships also fell as the number of visits decreased to 77 from 88, with 66 visits so far booked for the coming season. Dawson said the port's diverse cargo base along with tight control on costs allowed it to cope with the changing trading environment. "Demand for the region's food and fibre exports has been strong, and we expect to sustain healthy volume and earnings into the second half of the year." The company is forecasting a full year underlying profit of between $59m to $63m. Shareholders were rewarded with a special one-off dividend of 2.5 cents a share as it returned surplus cash arising from the final insurance payout. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
NZ Herald
11-05-2025
- NZ Herald
Future of Napier-Wairoa train line still uncertain two years on from Cyclone Gabrielle
'KiwiRail has been working on a scoping study to understand the cost of line reinstatement ... or alternatively mothballing [it]. 'We expect to have discussions with the Government around the line by the middle of this year.' Mothballing a train line means officially closing it but keeping it in relatively good condition, so that it can been reinstated in future if required and funding is made available. Advocates have highlighted the benefits of reinstating the train line, which includes taking trucks off the troubled SH2 Napier-Wairoa Rd and reducing maintenance costs for that highway. However, the likes of major timber and pulp mill Pan Pac, one of Hawke's Bay's biggest employers, did not use the Napier to Wairoa train line to transport its logs when it was open. History of the line The train line used to run all the way from Napier to Gisborne but a storm closed that line in 2012. Later that year, the line was officially mothballed. In 2019, the Napier-Wairoa section (about half of the line) was reinstated following a $6.2 million investment. Services were suspended just a week after they began due to the Covid-19 pandemic, before log trains resumed in November 2020. Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 then struck and damaged more than 400 sites on the 115km track. Meanwhile, the current rail network in Hawke's Bay features a railway line which starts at Woodville (near Palmerston North) – where it connects with other tracks – and heads north to Napier Port. The line then extends further north to Wairoa but that section is out of action.
