By Rob McKay
in its annual report released September 22nd, the terminals and rail business said the outlook remained difficult and it would “proceed cautiously””.
Outgoing chairman Tim Poole and incumbent chief executive Mark Rowsthorn hailed the success of this year’s capital-raising exercise, the retention of assets and the company being in a position to complete a restructure by the middle of 2010.
“”While there are signs within a number of our businesses that volumes may be stabilising following significant weakness during the March quarter, there remain few, if any, indications of an imminent recovery in the domestic and international economies,”” they said.
Asciano will concentrate on rolling out and investing in the Pacific National Queensland coal business, which remained ahead of schedule.
It would also seek to achieve $90 million cost savings by 2010/11.
The company expects north-south rail corridor upgrades to be completed by next year which will boost Pacific National Intermodal’s efficiency in containerised rail freight.
Special mention was made of the Patrick workforce mitigating the effects of the downturn in throughput, especially at Melbourne’s East Swanson Dock, where volumes were down 13 per cent.
“”Across all terminals the Maritime Union of Australia and Patrick management have worked cooperatively to introduce cost cutting initiatives in order to reduce the impact of slowing volumes on employment,”” Rowsthorn said.
“”Through good cost management, the East Swanson Dock terminal was able to reduce both labour and maintenance costs over the period and maintained their earnings margin.””
Source: Lloyd’s List Daily Commercial News – www.lloydslistdcn.com.au
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