The port also reported a 7 per cent increase in total trade from the previous year to 25.3 million tonnes.

The increases in both tonnage and volume were largely attributed to resilient export volumes by the port.

Moreover, Underlying Group Net Profit After Tax was NZD $126.0 million (£73.8 million), a 23 per cent increase on the previous year.

READ: Kalmar secures hybrid straddle carrier order from Port of Tauranga

Port of Tauranga Chair, Julia Hoare, said New Zealand is missing out on hundreds of millions of dollars a year due to the delays in consenting the Stella Passage development, which has been in the consenting system for more than six years.

A judicial review of the port’s fast-track application for the Stella Passage development has been upheld, with the High Court determining the Environmental Protection Authority should not have accepted the application as the project was not exactly as described in Schedule 2 of the legislation.

The legislative drafting error has resulted in the Court putting the fast-track process on hold. The expert panel was due to commence on 1 September.

The ongoing delays in obtaining a resource consent for the Stella Passage development are reaching a crisis point as the port is forced to turn away shipping services due to a lack of berth capacity.

In the last month, the port has had to decline a proposed new service to the Americas that would have provided New Zealand importers and exporters with an estimated $65 million (£38.1 million) to $90 million (£52.7 million) per annum in international freight savings.

Earlier this July, the Port of Tauranga announced it would trial the country’s first-ever all-electric container straddle carrier at New Zealand’s busiest port.