“Even as the rates move around, we’re seeing quite a sustained shift of logs into containers,” says Port of Tauranga chief executive Mark Cairns. “There have been times it’s been attempted over the years, but this is probably over the last 10 months in particular.

“It’s a good way of repositioning empties to Asia as well - rather than carting fresh air, they’re going there with a revenue leg.”

Other ports to report the move towards containerisation of logs include the Port of Napier (200 teu per month), CentrePort Wellington (75 teu per month) and Lyttelton Port of Christchurch.