Kia ora,
With the COVID-19 situation escalating rapidly, I want to ensure you that Napier Port is taking the potential impacts seriously and we are implementing significant business continuity plans accordingly.
As a critical service to the Hawke’s Bay region, Napier Port has a vital role to play in supporting our economy and our community. We are doing everything we can to ensure all imports and exports can continue to flow through Napier Port, particularly as we enter into the traditional export peak season.
To date, we have established two focus areas across our Business Continuity Plan framework – our people and our business process. We are ensuring that we have thoroughly considered what could come from a sustained outbreak in New Zealand and the continuing disruption to the global supply chain.
More specifically, our first priority is the health and wellbeing of our people and our community. We have an enormous responsibility to keep our people safe as this situation unfolds, particularly those in highly specialised operational roles such as crane operators, marine pilots and terminal planners who are essential to the port’s continued operations. We are working closely with the Ministry of Health and taking a practical and proactive approach to be well prepared for the spread of COVID-19.
We are also taking a multi-pronged approach to monitor and manage our operational performance through any number of scenarios that we have identified, including abnormal vessel omissions and cargo rolling, sudden changes to storage capacity and equipment supply constraints. We will continue to work hard to mitigate these risks and potential impacts, and navigate this challenging time with as little disruption as possible for our customers.
We don’t know the scale or the specific impacts that COVID-19 will have, but we are doing what we can to ensure we are prepared for whatever comes.
I hope this information is useful and I will endeavour to provide further updates as the situation changes.
Nga mihi,
Todd Dawson
CHIEF EXECUTIVE
