Port of Newcastle focuses on expansion of container trade

Port of Newcastle board members and executive team personnel visited Narrabri on Tuesday as part of PoN’s campaign to increase container volume through its multi purpose terminal.

The group visited Australian Food and Fibre’s Narrabri warehouse on the Kamilaroi Highway to discuss PoN’s plans.

Ultimately, Port of Newcastle aims to develop a world-class container terminal and is working to draw more business from the North West and Western regions.

PoN is engaging with the exporters in the region and has undertaken major sponsorship of popular food and wine showcase event, Nosh Narrabri.

The PoN group’s visit was the first since a $10,120,000 payment was made to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal, which completed the Port of Newcastle Extinguishment of Liability Act in April which meant the removal of a major hurdle for a new Port of Newcastle container terminal.

“With Newcastle Port no longer liable to pay compensation to the NSW government for container trade above a certain cap, we now move to increase container trade through Newcastle, which will benefit farmers throughout the North West and New England,” said CEO Craig Carmody.

“The one-off compensation payment will bring an end to the legislative process, meaning PoN will no longer be penalised for competing against Port Botany.”

With the determination figure handed down in April, the port has one final regulatory issue to overcome before meaningful progress can occur on a container terminal at Newcastle, Mr Carmody said.

The Port of Newcastle aims to ultimately see a greater volume of containers carrying commodities from the North West and New England being shipped from the port via a new container terminal. Meanwhile PoN is promoting more business from the region through its multi purpose terminal.

The port’s attention is focused on the current NSW Freight Reform Review, which is a determinant of state planning decisions.

The Freight Policy Reform Program will review ports, rail, road and intermodal facilities, to determine the best policy framework to optimise safety, productivity and sustainability, in response to current and emerging drivers of demand.

With the review underway, Port of Newcastle will continue to focus on growing its container volume.

“Our immediate focus will be the continued growth of container trade through our existing Multipurpose Terminal, which we have invested over $35 million in and currently has planning approval for 350,000 containers a year,” Mr Carmody said.

The current Freight and Ports Policy states that Port Kembla is the designated second port for a container terminal in NSW, which impacts on Port of Newcastle’s ability to get planning approvals for its own container terminal.

“We hope the NSW Freight Reform Review will agree that there should be a level playing field for competition rather than the state trying to pick winners,” Mr Carmody said.

“The IPART determination has allowed Port of Newcastle to assume it has the support of all sides of parliament to move towards the expansion of container operations at the port.”