NZ port sector requires government nudge

Mr Parker lamented that most ports were making “truly abysmal financial returns on their assets”.

“Simply insisting that ports meet the criteria laid out in the Port Companies Act whereby they are required to ‘operate a successful business’ might give some focus,” he said.

“You can hardly claim a successful business with negative free cash flow. Being required to achieve a cost of capital return without ratepayer subsidy would be a great goal!”

Mr Parker said the country’s port sector overall was falling behind the gains of other nations and threatening New Zealand’s trading-based wealth.