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Coast with the Most

Australia’s ports are competing to offer the best facilities to the largest vessels. We tour Australia’s coastline, starting with Brisbane

An island nation with a long tradition of bulk export and ever-increasing inward container trade, Australia’s port sector is in a constant state of expansion.

Upgrade complete: the Port of Esperance has dredged the main shipping channel to 19 metres and invested in a new berthing

On Australia’s east coast, the Port of Brisbane’s rapid development in recent years owes much to a unique partnership with city and state authorities – the Australia TradeCoast initiative. Supported by the Queensland and City of Brisbane development authorities, together with Brisbane Airport and the Port of Brisbane, TradeCoast’s goal is to transform Brisbane’s “ports precinct” into a major global trade and industry hub. With more than 8000 hectares of prime industrial land, and around 7600 businesses already in the area, it’s an attractive proposition.

In March 2003, Wendy McMillan, the port’s Marketing and Business Development Manager, was part of a team taking the Australia TradeCoast message to MIPIM, the key international real estate event, held in France.

“The MIPIM experiment showed that the city and state involvement is highly regarded, particularly by Europeans,” says McMillan. “It’s a stamp of approval. We’re the only state that has such a combination of partners, and when you can quote successes like the defence industries that are locating in the region, whether it’s EADS (the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company) or Boeing or Virgin, people realise there’s something going on here.”

Swedish multinational Sandvik is one company that has made the move to Brisbane, despite having its distribution centre in Sydney. Calculating that it would save both time and money by shipping freight to Brisbane and transporting it south by road, the company also benefits from other advantages, including Brisbane’s lack of curfews, a smooth network linking air, sea, road and rail, and the availability of prime land.

“The property angle is something different with us,” says McMillan. “A port manager or authority normally has set land holdings, and not a large amount. As the only purpose-built capital city port in Australia, we have the ability to plan around the constraints that others face at the moment.”

Room for more: rapid development at Port of Brisbane

New lines
Brisbane is also increasingly well connected to major shipping lines, and is gaining recognition as a transhipment port. Transhipment cargo was up 43% in the year to March 2003, boosted by Maersk’s service up to Europe through PTP. This service comes from New Zealand, but with a complimentary north-south string from Melbourne and Sydney toward Asia. Cargoes from Melbourne and Sydney to Europe come to Brisbane (increasingly by rail or road), picking up the New Zealand ship to PTP, and then a mainline carrier to Europe.

The ANZ Alliance round-the-world service is also calling at Brisbane, its main focus being Australia and New Zealand to the US east coast, with a dairy and meat focus. The service was full from its commencement in November 2002.

Down south
Development is also planned in the south of Australia, with Flinders Ports announcing a A$400m redevelopment of Adelaide’s Outer Harbour. While there is debate over whether the A$55m deepening of the main channel from 12.2 metres to 14 metres should be funded by the port or the state government (to combat competition from the Port of Melbourne, which is due to be deepened in 2003), the 10-year plan also includes construction of wine storage and containerisation facilities, a further three warehouses for container and bulk cargoes, a cold store and a mineral sands storage facility, plus an upgrade of current wharf motor vehicle storage.

Both Mitsubishi and General Motors Holden expect vehicle exports through Port Adelaide to increase dramatically following deals including the export of the Holden Monaro to the US under the Pontiac badge. Vehicle numbers through the Outer Harbour are anticipated to treble from the present 40,000 annually to in excess of 120,000 by 2007.

Meanwhile Australia’s huge success in wine exports has prompted BRL Hardy to consolidate its current transport and logistics arrangements to a new A$13m 20,000m2 storage and export warehouse next to the CSX container terminal. Construction should be complete by the end of 2003.

And out west...
On Australia’s west coast, Fremantle Ports has recently exported its heaviest-ever bulk load. The vessel Antillanca departed Kwinana Bulk Terminal on 13 April with a mineral sands cargo totalling 43,694 tonnes – a KBT record export, made up of 29,079 tonnes of ilmenite, 10,008 tonnes of synthetic rutile and 4607 tonnes of natural rutile. The Dynamic UnderKeel Clearance program was used to ensure the vessel negotiated the channels safely while carrying this record load. Bulk commodities showing a substantial increase in Outer Harbour trade at Fremantle over the last six months of 2002 included ammonium sulphate, potash, sulphur, refined petroleum, and silica sands. Bulk exports in the Outer Harbour were up by 2.9% during this period.

Kwinana Bulk Jetty is also getting a new storage facility to house 60,000 tonnes of bulk fertiliser for United Farmers. Environmental considerations have been given a high priority; the fertiliser will be transported into the shed by Fremantle Ports’ modern conveyor system, there will be ‘foggers’ at all transfer points to reduce airborne dust, while two sump pools will collect water run-off.

The Port of Esperance, along the south coast of Western Australia, is already reaping the rewards of a A$54m upgrade, completed last year. The works for the upgrade included dredging the main harbour basin from 12.8 metres to 14.5 metres, and deepening a new berth pocket and the main shipping channel to 19 metres. The new berth has a 4500-tonnes-per-hour capacity ship loader and a new 300,000 tonne iron ore storage shed and handling facilities.

“Now it’s back to business as usual,” says the port’s CEO Colin Stewart.

Websites: www.australiatradecoast.com.au
www.portbris.com.au
www.flindersports.com.au
www.freport.wa.gov.au
www.esperanceport.com.au

Geo-Economic and Port Data

Shipper Nation

Fremantle Ports

Australian Reef Pilots

Changing Customs

www.australiatradecoast.com.au

www.portbris.com.au

www.flindersports.com.au

www.freport.wa.gov.au

www.esperanceport.com.au