Roger Gray: Port of Auckland CEO on the criticism of their upcoming fee increases

Port of Auckland's pushing back against criticism of its move to raise fees. 

The port's increasing peak time fees from $130 per container to $180 next year, and $350 the following year. 

Transporting New Zealand Chief Executive Dom Kalasih says it's one of several cost pressures facing businesses, alongside rising fuel excise taxes and soon-to-be-introduced congestion charges. 

Port boss Roger Gray told Mike Hosking the fees are fair and Kalasih should come visit the port to understand why. 

He says he's never met Kalasih, who's never accepted invitations to visit to the port. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This time yesterday transporting New Zealand. We're on the program
outlining their concerns around port access fees. So peak time
container fees, as we've told you, will rise to three
hundred and fifteen by twenty twenty seven. Other side of
the story is they claim turn times are down from
thirty minutes to seventeen, container volumes are up seven percent.
So is it working? Roger Gray is the Port of
Auckland CEO and is back with us. Roger, good morning,

(00:22):
Good morning, Mike. Now the container volumes being up, is
that a sign of the economy as much as it
is a more efficient system?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
I think to sign of both, Mike. We've certainly seen
growth across the port, but I do feel that customers
are voting with defeat and they're prepared to pay for
the service a geint.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Now you can't, well do you? Their claim yesterday was
you put prices up, it's got to be passed on
and that's inflationary. I mean, that's true, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
There's no doubt that any price increase within the supply
chain increases the direct cost at that point, but the
total cost of delivery and the speed to market is
well what people are paying for, and they're prepared to
pay for quality service.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
So if they pay more and get a better service,
you say, people can live with it. Why do you
charge more simply because you can?

Speaker 2 (01:11):
No, we aren't in monopoly, which is the line a
lot of people like to say. We charge more for
two reasons. One, we think there's value for the service
we provide and therefore we charge for that. And the
second bit is, and I've spoken to you about this before,
is we want to make sure that the city and
the ratepayers get a fair return for the one point

(01:32):
six billion they've got tied up in the port.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
When you say you're not a monopoly, you are, and
you aren't. I mean there's a difficulty around that, isn't there?
I mean the simple fact is that you're the main
play You're the player in Auckland. Yes, I can come
and through Taronga, but you know I may or may
not be able to or want to, or it may
be price prohibited.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Well, Mike, you know the Port of Tartang has been
a vicious competitor against us for over a decade, supported
by Kiri Out for a very long time, and we
saw hundreds of thousands containers, particularly going in through Troong,
and what we've started to do is claw back what was,
in my view the market share that the Port of

(02:09):
Hawkings should have had.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
Okay, so you're more competitive, you're more cost competitive, you're
a better business and people are happy with that. When
you listen to the transporting New Zealand people though, and
they want some sort of intervention and they've got a
genuine problem. What do you say to them?

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Well, first off, I've never met mister Calicy. He's never
bothered to visit the port, even though we've invited him.
He sits in Wellington and likes to make commentary on
our business. But what I'd say to him is, come
and understand the fact that productivity is improving. Come and
understand why the customers want to use us. We've held
customer talent hall meetings for all of this week and

(02:45):
the resounding feedback on getting from our direct customers is
they're happy with the service and they're prepared to pay
for what they get. Okay.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Fun text Mike when talking to the Auckland Ports boss,
ask them why they charge the highest port charges in
the world for cruise ships. That's why Aukland thirty five
percent down on cruise ship arrivals.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
True or not not true. Port of Sydney has just
announced the visitor levy of forty eight dollars. We're much
lower than that at twenty and there are a whole
myriad of reasons why cruise ships dropped off, ranging from
government support through to buy fouling, all issues that we've addressed,
and we've already announced cruises coming back. We've got winter

(03:25):
cruising in twenty twenty seven and I think that we're
certainly at the bottom of the cycle.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Nice to talk to you, appreciate it. Roger Gray, who's
the Port of Auckland CEO, with us this morning. For
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