Forest Enterprises harvested approximately 350,000 tonnes from our Wairarapa harvest this year. We are able to satisfy demand from local sawmills with approximately 35% of our Wairarapa volume and the balance, approximately 230,000 tonnes, was exported via CentrePort in Wellington.
CentrePort has released its 2019 Annual Report. The port has experienced a 27% increase in log export by volume on the previous financial year, evidence of the significant growth in the region in log production and export.
“The supply chain for us is a real key part of making the job work. CentrePort has been a real key to us being able to increase our productivity. Rail is simply a very efficient way to move logs”, says Forest Enterprises CEO Bert Hughes.
CentrePort and KiwiRail have enabled an increase in rail capacity from 30 to 45 wagons per day. Transporting an additional 100,000 tonnes of logs by rail from the Waingawa Rail Hub near Masterton down to CentrePort will reduce a further 6,000 truck trips every year through SH2. Growth is planned to 60 wagons per day by March 2020.
Additional advantages of rail are that it reduces road maintenance costs and has 66% fewer emissions per tonne compared to trucks.
