Ports of Auckland (POAL) will be able to offer its shipping line customers the choice of moving containers through Tauranga if NZL Group is successful in setting up a container terminal there.
NZL Group, a privately owned New Zealand logistics company, said it had the right to operate a marshalling and stevedoring business on Port of Tauranga's Sulphur Point land care of an old contract.
Port of Tauranga disputed NZL had the right to do this, and said even if NZL succeeded in rebuilding arrangements at Tauranga that existed in 2003 they would not amount to a container terminal.
Ports of Auckland said on Friday it would be NZL's major customer at Tauranga.
This means Ports of Auckland would be able to offer its shipping line customers the option of shifting containers through Tauranga.
Ports of Auckland managing director Jens Madsen says this is was not about shifting cargo from Auckland to Tauranga.
"It will mean that we and NZL will be able to expand on our logistics network," he says.
Ports of Auckland was "moving outside of the fence".
It would also increase its capacity as NZL claimed to have rights to use land at Sulphur Point.
Ports of Auckland and Port of Tauranga are historically bitter rivals but they have also considered merging.
Efficiencies were expected to be available in the movement of empty containers but Madsen would not go into details.
"Ports of Auckland will be NZL's major customer when it establishes operations at the Port of Tauranga," Madsen says.
"This gives us an entry point into the Bay of Plenty and access to existing infrastructure.
"We are now working with NZL to explore the various options presented by this opportunity," he said.
NZL said on December 24 it had a contract dating back to the days when P&O Ports operated at Tauranga which gave it the right to set up again.
Its director Ken Harris said it would be a full terminal service. NZL had said it did not intend to buy cranes but expected to be charged for lifts by the port's existing cranes.
In 2006, former P&O business was bought by a group of New Zealand managers and investors.
NZL was one of several stevedore operators at the Port of Tauranga.
Harris said he talked to a range of parties and tried to operate a network of transport arrangements.
"We are interested in promoting coastal shipping links and rail links," he said.
