First signs of slowdown for Ports of Auckland

International cruise ship calls remained strong with 15 in January and another 24 scheduled for February, including the Queen Mary 2 – two more calls than for the same period last year.

Managing director Jens Madsen said that the company remained concerned about the economic outlook. “Over the last few months, there have been reports of significant reductions in container volumes through major world ports such as Singapore and Long Beach. New Zealand seems to have remained fairly insulated from the impacts until now. As flagged last month, we are gearing the business to cope with what appear to be very challenging times ahead.”