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A 6% rise in trade helped Port of Tauranga lift half-year net profit 10% to $22.5 million.
The company said on Wednesday total trade for the six months to the end of December was up 6%, compared to a year earlier, to 6.94 metric tonnes.
Container volumes were also up 6% to 289,600 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).
Among items to show increases were log exports, up 26%, sawn timber exports up 9%, wood pulp exports up 1%, frozen meat exports up 13%, bulk liquid imports up 25%, coal imports up 48% and palm kernel imports up 87% on the previous year.
A fully imputed interim dividend of 9 cents per share had been maintained.
Chairman John Parker said 2009 would be challenging.
"We don't really know the extent of the challenges but will ensure we are well prepared for them," he said.
"It remains very difficult to accurately forecast the remaining half of this financial year, with our customers not having much visibility on demand outlook, but at this stage we expect to post a full year result similar to last year's earnings."
Costs had been reduced but the port was not shying away from investing for future growth, Parker said.
The company had just bolstered its strategic landholdings by a further 4.4 hectares, through an agreement with Carter Holt Harvey.
That brought total landholdings to 185 hectares, of which 13.7 hectares were bought during the past 12 months.
Resource consent applications would be lodged to dredge harbour channels and sitting basins to 14.5 metres draught in the next few months, while a new ship to shore gantry crane was on schedule and would be commissioned in July, Parker said.
Chief executive Mark Cairns described the company as New Zealand's port for the future.
He said the company's increasingly diverse trade mix was relatively defensive, and it was pleasing to see a strong increase in cart-in of forestry cargo during the past month.
Shares in the port, 55%-owned by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, closed yesterday at $5.15, the lowest level in more than two years as the New Zealand sharemarket fell to a five-year low.
