New Zealand’s inland ports starting to gain support

<p>New Zealand’s inland ports program received a boost this week, with Tasman Orient Line committing to Ports of Auckland’s Otahuhu inland port facility.</p> <p>All Tasman Orient Line-carried import containers will now be immediately transferred to the Otahuhu facility on arrival at the seaport.</p> <p>The Otahuhu facility is in the centre of the industrial and manufacturing area of South Auckland, and has all the road and yard functions of a container terminal.</p> <p>Export containers are processed at the inland port and moved to the seaport, and import containers are cleared at the seaport and then stored and distributed from the inland port.</p> <p>Ports of Auckland hopes that moving the processing and storage functions of the seaport inland will relieve the traffic and space pressure on the seaport.</p> <p>South Auckland importers could also benefit by avoiding the need to run trucks into the inner city to pick up containers.</p> <p>Import containers are transferred to the inland port outside normal working hours in a further bid to relieve port-related traffic.</p> <p>Otahuhu is one of two inland port sites for the Port of Auckland, with a third under construction at Wiri.</p> <br />