Port of Tauranga Limited is rerporting a drop in cargovolumes in the first quarter of the 2024 financial year.

In the three months to September 30, total trade was down 9.0 per cent involume compared to the same period last year, to 5.8 million tonnes.

Port of Tauranga Chief Executive, Leonard Sampson, told the company’s Annual Meeting of Shareholders on Friday that a number of factors hadcontributed to the drop in cargo volumes.

Continued global economic volatility, coastal shipping changes along withan early end to the kiwifruit season and slow start to the dairy exportseason were all contributors.

“Softening international commodity pricing and demand has had animpact on some key exports as shippers have hit pause to instead focuson building inventory, or look for alternative international markets.”

Total container volumes in the first three months have decreased 20.9 per cent tojust over 250,000 TEU1.

A key factor in the reduction in container volumes was due to changes incoastal vessel rotations resulting in containersed transhipment decreasing 31 per cent for the period.

Containerised imports are down 23 per cent on the previous year reflectingweaker domestic consumption and increased rail costs.

“However, we expect some recovery due to the usual pre-Christmas boostto imports.1 TEU = twenty foot equivalent unit, a standard measure of shipping containers.