Port of Tauranga Limited is purchasing land near Christchurch it plans to transform into an inland Canterbury port, similar to its MetroPort operation in South Auckland.

The port company today announced signing a conditional agreement with the Selwyn District Council to buy 15 hectares of land in the Izone Industrial Park at Rolleston for development as an intermodal freight hub.

Port of Tauranga. Photo: File.

The Izone development is a 180 hectare industrial park, 12 kilometres south of Christchurch, with excellent road and rail connections, established to cater for manufacturing, warehousing and logistics businesses.

Port chief executive Mark Cairns says the port is planning to establish an intermodal freight hub to receive, pack and distribute containerised cargo.

The port recently acquired a 50 per cent shareholding in PrimePort Timaru and operates its container terminal.

Mark says an intermodal freight hub at Rolleston will provide South Island exporters the option to efficiently access Timaru and similarly, importers in the Christchurch area will have the option to ship through Timaru.

It is a style of operation that has already proved itself with the PTL's ‘inland port' operation in South Auckland, giving Auckland industries a more efficient import/export option to trying to get cargo across the then congested Port of Auckland terminal.

'It's replicating our MetroPort operation, which we regard as very successful,” says Mark.

'It's been operating 15 years now, since '99, and we see it as a similar situation and it will allow Timaru to access a greater cargo catchment area with that South Canterbury region.

'If you look at where all the growth is in that primary sector is going to be, it's not in a bad location and it's complementary to our strategy with big ships, giving South Canterbury exporters a lower blue water freight cost.”

The Izone Industrial Park is owned by Selwyn District Council and managed by Hughes Developments Limited.