The Port of Tauranga is grappling with double digit growth in container traffic brought on by the Ports of Auckland dispute with its container terminal workers.

Maersk moved its Southern Star service to the Port of Tauranga in December and last week the country's largest exporter, Fonterra, announced its exports will from February be via the ports of Napier and Tauranga.

Port of Tauranga.

Over the last five years the Port of Tauranga has been planning for major growth with capital works this year including an extension to the Sulphur Point container terminal wharf, new straddle carriers for the terminal, and a new crane which is expected later in the year.

'We are planning for the capacity to come on, but it's certainly come on a bit quicker than we thought,” says Port of Tauranga CEO Mark Cairns today.

'So we are certainly going to be stretching at the seams in the next six to 12 months.

'It's not a bad problem in these sort of flat recessionary times – it's not a bad problem to grapple with.”