[As published in November/December BayBuzz magazine.]

In the previous issue of BayBuzz, we profiled non-primary produce exporters. In this article we look at two Hawke’s Bay importers, and the import business of Napier Port.

David Kriel, Napier Port’s General Manager Commercial, says that Napier Port is an export-focussed port. 

“And New Zealand is an export-focussed country.” 

Part of Kriel’s role involves shopping Napier Port to the international shipping lines, to get them to call in at Ahuriri, which is conveniently located just 13 sea miles from the main shipping routes. 

Every year he calls on the Asian offices of the shipping companies, because that’s where decisions are made for Australasian shipping, to remind them of the strengths and opportunities of including Napier as a port of call. Less frequently he’s further afield, touting for business in Europe. 

“We do quite a lot of hard work to make Hawke’s Bay attractive to the international (shipping) lines, because we have a big seasonal profile.” 

Our lopsided Port 

Not surprisingly, the split between the port’s exports and imports is around 80:20 by weight, with springtime the slowest time of year. Napier Port has the capacity and landside logistics capability to increase import volumes, relieving pressure from other congested northern New Zealand ports. 

Imports through Napier Port include fertiliser, oil products, general cargo, foodstuffs, cement and bitumen. 

Because of the trade imbalance, Napier Port has a huge need for refrigerated shipping containers; ‘reefers’ as they’re known in the trade. Shipping companies have to freight the empty containers to Hawke’s Bay at their cost. In the year to 30 September 2024, shipping companies transported 80,000 empty TEUs (equivalent to a 20 foot container) into the region. 

Traditionally, ports don’t really control cargo, Kriel says. “It’s controlled by supply and demand. Market conditions for imports in this region – Taupō south – is not very high. The demand is much lower than what it is north of that line.” 

But that is slowly changing as the population drifts south, and prices, road congestion and capacity constraints in other places make alternative ports with good connections more attractive. 

Kriel says the challenge is to attract imports, because it makes the port more sustainable. 

“We go and talk to the importers themselves. But often the people buying the product don’t control how it gets to New Zealand, they’re just buying on a delivered price basis. 

“So we go and explain the benefits of bringing freight in through Napier Port. You can potentially lower your ocean freight cost by bringing it into an export dominant port, because the shipping lines know they have to get containers here. At the moment they’re bringing them in at their own cost. However, if they could bring it in, and somebody’s paying for them, it so much more attractive, so we’ve spent a lot of time joining those dots.” 

Although not disclosed by the Port, it would be safe to assume that revenue attributed to its import business is probably proportionate to its export-to-import split. 

David Kriel says that Napier Port is focussed on growing all of its business, not just imports. 

“We want both. We want to grow our volume, and assist it, and take out any obstacles to growth, and that means trying to attract more imports. 

“That plays to the sustainability of the growth.” 

A balanced port, one where volumes of incoming and outgoing cargo are matched, drives efficiencies and attractiveness of the port to shipping companies, and makes the business more sustainable. 

Getting shipping companies to call is one part of the picture, the other is attracting export and import customers, and that’s where Nicolas Ganivet, Supply Chain Manager comes in. 

Ganivet’s role is to find more customers, that are not necessarily in the region, to ship their goods through Napier Port. His hunting ground is areas outside of Hawke’s Bay, such as the lower North Island where the Manawatu inland port, which is 50 percent owned by Napier Port, and Viewpoint, the port’s supply chain service both play major roles. 

Viewpoint, launched a year ago, connects customers to the port and includes services like warehousing, transport of containers, and logistics. Carterton smallgoods producer, Premier Beehive, is one such customer singing the praises of the Viewpoint service, that sees its Napier-landed imports shipped to Palmerston North via rail, before being trucked to Carterton. 

Ganivet says it’s the variety of services the port offers. 

“We use all the visibility we have across the port movements to create a seamless supply chain solution, and put together whatever the customer needs. We’re trying to promote that as a point of difference, and that brings value in removing empty container movements … all that waste in the supply chain. If you can match an import with an export movement suddenly it makes the whole supply chain just a bit more connected. 

“The issue is the imbalance. So the more imports you get through the port, even though they may not end up in Hawke’s Bay … makes the port more desirable, which in turn attracts more services. 

“If we get those big importers to change their mindset, suddenly it can change the game,” says Ganivet.

Big Save Furniture

Big Save Furniture is a household name in New Zealand. The family owned furniture and bedding retailer – one of the country’s largest – celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. 

Originating in the Wellington region, the company made the move to Hawke’s Bay 17 years ago, relocating its head office and North Island distribution centre.

In a 2011 media article Big Save director Tom McKimm said lower costs and better logistics was the motivation, and the move had been hugely successful. 

Today, Big Save has 27 stores (mostly in the North Island), 250 employees, and its own trucking fleet. In Napier, the company has 64 staff across two retail stores, warehouse and delivery teams with local delivery and linehaul trucks, and head office.

As a private company, Big Save isn’t required to share information about its business operations; details about company revenue or market share are not readily available. However, BayBuzz did come across a 2010 media article that said the company had 21 stores and a $100 million turnover. 

Big Save’s range includes everything to furnish a house; lounge and dining furniture – representing about 50% of its range; beds and bedroom furniture – about 30% of its range; home office, outdoor, and a commercial range servicing accommodation and transitional housing customers. 

Stock is sourced both from goods made and designed in New Zealand – Sealy is a significant supplier of beds, for example, and from imports from offshore manufacturers, who produce to Big Save’s designs. 

The company is very tight on quality control, says Big Save CFO Charlotte Moodie. 

“In terms of quality control the directors like to spec the product top to bottom, so nice little mechanisms in your armchairs and things like that.”

With a significant portion of its product range coming from offshore, Big Save works with several suppliers in China and Vietnam, as well as importing from Australia, Malaysia, India and Singapore. Around 40%-45% of its imports land at Napier Port.

“The directors have a really good relationship with the Napier Port since they moved here,” says Chief Operating Officer Rowena Miller. 

“It’s our mainstay.”

In addition to importing into Hawke’s Bay, Big Save also lands product in Wellington, and more recently into Christchurch, in a move designed to reduce delivery times for South Island customers. 

Perhaps surprisingly, Big Save is also an exporter, but not of finished goods. 

In 2021, the company committed to paying farmers a fair price for wool, as part of its sustainability efforts. Wool is a key component of some Big Save beds and furniture. The property arm of Big Save owners, the McKimm family, bought four sheep and beef farms in the Ākitio, Hawke’s Bay and Tararua regions.

Now Big Save exports New Zealand strong wool from its own farms and others in the area, to its offshore bed and furniture manufacturers for inclusion in Big Save’s range, and its Kiwi suppliers are including it in their designs for the company too.

Moodie says that Big Save sees massive value in wool. “The directors are trying to work within New Zealand to push the wool agenda, because there are just so many smart things we can do with it.”

Ravensdown

The Ravensdown factory at Awatoto is a well-known landmark on the Napier seafront and is the largest of three manufacturing sites for the co-operative. It is New Zealand’s largest superphosphate manufacturing site, producing more than 250,000 tonnes annually, with Christchurch and Dunedin rounding out Ravensdown’s production facilities. 

Currently fertiliser represents around 30% of imports coming into the region, but that has declined from 35% in 2021 to 29% in the year to September 2023 (source Napier Port). 

Recently Ravensdown confirmed the closure of its Dunedin plant, scheduled for January 2025, as it faces a contraction of the fertiliser industry. Ravensdown volumes are declining; down by nearly 26% between its 2022 and 2024 financial years. 

Ravensdown Hawke’s Bay has had more than its fair share of challenges in recent years, with a fire in late 2022, followed by flooding from the cyclone. Tony Gray, Awatoto plant manager, says that the plant had only just resumed operations in late January 2023, before the floodwaters hit. 

A new 35 year consent – with conditions around discharges to air and water – and a $50 million capital project just completed, increases production capacity and significantly improves environmental performance. 

Ravensdown says its new acid converter will result in a 40% reduction in sulphur dioxide emissions and will facilitate quicker hot restarts, reducing the use of diesel and therefore GHG emissions. 

We had a 14 week shutdown, with people working around the clock, says Gray. 

“It was very successful. We’ve had some good reinvestment in the plant, and it signifies one, the strength of the co-operative, and two, the commitment. It’s great to have a vibrant regional economy there and we see ourselves as a significant part of that in the future.” 

Sulphur and rock phosphate are the two main raw materials in superphosphate, and Ravensdown imports them in vast quantities through Napier Port. 

Sulphur is sourced from Canada, says Gray, shipped from Vancouver. 

Elemental sulphur is produced all over the world, with the largest production occurring where sour (meaning sulphur-rich) gas and oil is processed and refined, in places like Canada, the USA, the former Soviet Union, and West Asia. Phosphorus is an essential element for plant and animal nutrition, with phosphate rock minerals the only significant global resource of phosphorus. 

In 2024, the world’s leading phosphate producers included Morocco (holding an estimated 70% of total world reserves), Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, China, Brazil, South Africa and Saudi Arabia. Other countries with phosphate reserves include Australia, the USA, Finland, Jordan and Russia. Certain regions, such as the Western Sahara are technically phosphate-rich but present access issues for many of the stakeholders involved.

Rock phosphate, is imported by Ravensdown from a number of different countries, including Australia, South Africa, Morocco and Togo.

Geopolitical unrest has affected Ravensdown’s raw material supplies, meaning that new sources of rock phosphate were needed. Sourcing so-called ‘conflict rock’ via Morocco has been controversial. In 2024 Ravensdown undertook a human rights risk assessment across its supply chain, with a focus on rock phosphate. No supplier agreements have been terminated as a result of this work.

In its latest annual report, Ravensdown said: “Sourcing phosphate rock from new suppliers in South Africa and Australia enabled us to have alternatives.

“Bringing in new sources of phosphate rock ensures we have strong levels of resilience within our supply chain to meet our customer requirements for superphosphate.”

In a media article in August, following the completion of the capital project, Gray said that Ravensdown Awatoto was in a good position to ensure its future.

“We are committed to the region and wouldn’t be making this kind of investment unless we saw confidence in the site.” 

Unusual imports

Interesting items imported through Napier Port in recent years include wind turbine components for Meridian Energy’s Harapaki wind farm that now stand atop the Maungaharuru Range northwest of Napier.

Napier Port says imports like the wind farm components highlight the shift towards renewable energy and sustainability. These imports, as well as presenting unique logistical challenges, including transporting large-scale components to remote areas, also create future opportunities for growth in this sector.

Planning and collaboration between many partners ensured these components were safely unloaded and transported to their local storage facility until required on site.

Another unique import was a 1913 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost. The historic vehicle was imported via Napier Port and then devanned at Manawatū Inland Port for its New Zealand owner. The vehicle is a piece of Rolls-Royce history having been driven in the 1913 Alpine Trails know as Austrian Alpenfahrt, a 2650-kilometre journey over 19 major mountain passes.