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A basic outline of why Port Otago Limited is seeking a height of 15m for all of the Port 1 zone. 

As from the end of 2002, P&O Nedlloyd are proposing to service New Zealand’s container trade with a new generation of supership.  These superships are planing to be in port for a maximum of 13 to 14 hours instead of the present 2 ½ to 3 days.  Presently the extended time enables late export cargo to be delivered over the 2 ½  to 3 day period and empty containers to be sent out, relieving pressure for space within the terminal. To achieve the condensed stay, the outgoing cargo will be required to be at the port at least six hours prior to the superships arrival

Port Otago acknowledge that full containers can only be stacked up to three high in specially designated areas. These are transported from the stacks to the cranes via straddle carriers, and it is not practical to either mix full and empty containers or to relocate the full container stacks out onto Boiler Point outer.

The Port Company states that the terminal is already at peak capacity, which includes the 8.5 metre height restriction at Boiler Point, and they require space for an additional 800 to 1,000 Teu’s (twenty foot equivalent units) arriving within the 13 to 14 hours duration of a supership visit.

Being able to stack containers to 15 metres, or five high at Boiler Point would provide the port with space for an additional 980 TEU, assuming that the area would be used for block stacking of empties.

Should the height limit remain, to accommodate 1,000 Teu stacked three high would require additional land area of 1,000/3 x 9,700/490  =  6,600 square metres.

They put forward three options provide for the unloading from the superships.

 i) Make maximum use of the available area at Boiler Point by stacking empty containers five high. 

 ii) Transferring the empty containers if quarantine allows, to an off-site facility. They say that this would involve up to 800 additional truck movements or one truck movement almost every minute up the main street of Port Chalmers, during the 12 or so hours that a supership is berthed.

 iii) Apply for a coastal permit to reclaim additional land at Boiler Point in order to accommodate the empty containers stacked three high.  Reclamation is a possibility  but is not the preferred option at this stage.

The Port Companies view is that the choice is between the intermittent loss of view from Careys Bay, further reclamation, or loss of income for the region’s farmers.  Loss of the supership trade is not something that Port Otago Limited is willing to contemplate.
 

17 July 2001