Mines key to FreightLink growth

By Sineva Toevai

And the rail company expects business to pick up from this year amid signs the recession has bottomed out, chief executive John Fullerton told Lloyd’s List DCN.
“We really haven’t seen a direct impact on the corridor but projects were delayed because they needed funds,” he said.
FreightLink secured a contract this year to transport copper concentrate for Oz Minerals from its Prominent Hill mine in South Australia to the port of Darwin.
With FreightLink’s help this year, the maiden delivery of the product from the mine to Darwin was made. And the target is to deliver about 600 tonnes of concentrate each day to the port, six days a week for shipment to smelters across Asia.
In addition to Oz Minerals activities, the company has been busy with its other two mining contracts with Territory Resources and OM Manganese.
The freight business from Adelaide to Darwin continued to grow, with the rail operator enjoying a 90 per cent share of business on that route, Fullerton said.
Since June last year, FreightLink has increased the service of containerised general freight, to six trains a week.
Volume has risen from 380,000 tonnes in its first year of operation in 2004 to three million tonnes today, Fullerton said.
Work for the Australian Defence Force has dropped off slightly in the past year.
“We moved a lot of equipment for them in 2007 and the first half of 2008 but it has been quiet this year,” he said.
“We expect increased activity in 2010 as we move more equipment to and from the training sites.”
Fullerton said FreightLink was focused on taking every opportunity to bring new mines on stream.
“We are still in a growth phase and we expect that to continue in the next few years,” he said.
He would not be drawn on any growth forecasts for this year as it was difficult to gauge until results of the feasibility studies being conducted on various mining projects were known.
The bulk of investment in the rail network was finished, therefore, no major upgrades to the rail network were envisaged in the foreseeable future, Fullerton said.
While rail and road compete on some levels, he believed the two modes of transport needed to work more “closely” together.
Certain types of jobs were better suited to rail than road and vice versa, he said.
For example, rail was better placed to handle more of the high volume, long distance type freight and low volume, short distance cargo would be better for road.
The ownership of the rail company remained in limbo until, at least, economic conditions improved, he said.
The company was still for sale despite an unsuccessful attempt earlier to divest the business.
Receiver KordaMentha was appointed voluntary administrator after FreightLink was unable to obtain all of the required consents for a voluntary sale of the business, a process that began in May last year.
“The outlook for the business is still good,” Fullerton said.
Source: Lloyd’s List Daily Commercial News – www.lloydslistdcn.com.au