Wellington, Feb 17 NZPA - Ports of Auckland has its fingers crossed that a pick up in container traffic in January and February will continue.

The council-owned operator of the largest container port in the country said container volumes rose 6 percent to 7 percent in January and February from a year ago. Port volumes are seen as an early indicator of economic activity in New Zealand.

Managing director Jens Madsen said January 2009 was "really bad".

Trading conditions now were still complex and the large shipping lines were reluctant to forecast trade for the next four to five months.

"But I'm relatively comfortable that through to April and May that the current trend could continue," he said.

Ports of Auckland made a net profit after tax of $13.9 million in the six months ended December 31, up from $9.3m last year. Earnings before interest and tax rose 4.6 percent.

The company is paying an interim dividend of $9.9m to Auckland Regional Holdings, the commercial arm of Auckland City Council. It did not pay and interim dividend last year.

Mr Madsen said the interim dividend payment was slightly higher than the port had expected. The dividend was still not good enough and the port needed to do better.

The port is concentrating on its Fergusson container terminal to gain efficiencies and to allow the Bledisloe terminal to be used for multiple purposes after Queens Wharf is handed over on April 1.

Mr Madsen wants to improve productivity at the port.

The consolidation of the container business at Fergusson had provided a better return on the investment in cranes, he said.

"Despite the improvements we are still not satisfied with the customer service level. We would like to register better turn times of the large container ships and better productivity parameters," he said. This would be a focus in the next six months.

The port has been operating trains to an inland site at Wiri since February 2 with four departures each way each week of up to 46 containers. There were still operational issues to adjust but the port was happy with the connection. The port also receives trains from Fonterra's Crawford Road facility in the Waikato.

Currently about 12 percent of the port's outward and inward traffic is on rail and the port hopes it will rise to 18 percent in 12 months and eventually to 25 percent.

There was still no news on the arrival of the next generation of container ships but the port had noticed that shipping companies were slowly increasing the size of vessels. Currently the largest container vessels calling in New Zealand can handle 4100 TEU, or twenty-foot equivalent units.

"The period was also notable for a continued trend to larger but fewer vessels, with shipping lines also deploying one-off 'extra-loaders' to cater for additional demand," said Mr Madsen.

"We were delighted to welcome the 5000 TEU Maersk Detroit extra-loader in December, the largest container vessel to ever visit the country."

Global container trade is down and shipping company margins are under pressure.

Ports were more cautious and were trying to utilise their existing facilities to their fullest extent, Mr Madsen said.

The port handled 438,438 TEU in the six months to December 31, down 3.7 percent on 2008 record high of 455,083 last year.

Vehicle imports were 62,751, up 42.4 percent on the previous six months but down 5.6 percent on last year.

There were 15 cruise ship calls in the interim period.

"Cruise bookings are picking up with 62 ships visiting over the financial year. With confirmation that the Pacific Pearl will be based in Auckland from late this year, calls are projected to reach a record high of 73 in 2010/11."