The calendar year finished on a high for Ports of Auckland with December showing another month of increased cargo volumes.

Total container volumes* were up 5% to 659,532 TEUs for the 12 months to end-December 2003 (as compared with the 12 months to end-December 2002) and also up 5% for the month of December 2003 compared with December 2002.

Full import and full export container volumes increased 5% and 1% respectively for the 12 months to end-December 2003. For the month of December, full imports were up 3% and full exports were up 12% as compared with December 2002.

Transhipment** volumes (54,235) rose 1% for the 12 months to end-December 2003 and were down 1% for the month of December 2003.

Containers comprise approximately 70% of Ports of Auckland’s throughput and about 85% of business activity.

Breakbulk (non-containerised) volumes were up 7% to 4.6 million tonnes for the 12 months to end-December 2003. December 2003 volumes were down 18% on December 2002.

Volumes for the first half of the 2003-04 financial year

For the six months July to December 2003 (compared with July to December 2002)

Total container volumes (344,467 TEUs) increased 3%.

Full import container volumes (130,204 TEUs) were up 4%.

Full export container volumes (88,132 TEUs) rose by 1%.

Transhipment volumes (30,704 TEUs) were up 8%.

Breakbulk cargoes totalled 2.2 million tonnes – a rise of 1%.

* Container volumes are measured in TEUs (20-foot equivalent units – or the size of a standard 20-foot container).

** Transhipment containers are discharged at Auckland and reshipped on another vessel to international or other New Zealand destinations.