By Rob McKay
Asciano general manager of access and regulation Tim Kuypers argued to the Queensland Competition Authority (QCA) in July that track tariff negotiations between Felix Resources and QR Network represented an abuse of power in relation to last month’s QR Coal haulage deal in New South Wales.
Kuypers alleged that Felix had told Asciano that QR Coal had won Felix’s Hunter Valley contract due to QR Access lowering its tariff for the Minerva line in Queensland’s West Blackwater region.
However, unless more evidence surfaces, Pacific National (PN) parent Asciano could be hard-pressed to prove that QR’s above rail and below rail operations were less than independent, given the blanket denial by Felix and QR.
Painting the issue a one of sour grapes over a missed deal, Flannery said PN should have presented its best offer earlier.
He was happy to reveal under oath the details of the process and events that Felix went through in awarding its Hunter Valley coal haulage contract, if Asciano would do the same.
“If they really want to get into that, we can compare PN and QR and the performance of their train sets in NSW in the last two years, for example,” he said.
Flannery insisted to the QCA that “no one at Felix has ever conveyed the message expressed by Mr Kuypers in paragraph four of his letter and his comments are totally incorrect”.
If the rest of Flannery’s letter was correct, the QCA need only refer to negotiations under its own auspices over the pricing of the West Blackwater Reference Tariff, which he said actually represented a 30-cent rise rather than a $1.30 price reduction on the fair price.
In its submission to the QCA, Asciano said that there was no “positive obligation” on QR Network, which shared directors with its parent state-owned entity, not to discriminate between above-rail operators, giving rise to conflict of interest issues.
QR said negotiations had been transparent and independent.
“All commercial arrangements with Felix Resources have been entirely appropriate and independently negotiated by QR Network and the QR Coal businesses,” a QR spokesman said.
“We do not intend to debate publicly specific commercial arrangements with our customers nor is it our role to comment on legally-enshrined processes of the independent regulator in determining access tariffs.
“However, there has been absolute independence and transparency of these completely separate processes.
“We negotiated a new contract in the Hunter Valley on fair and commercial terms.
“It would appear that our competitor is simply increasingly concerned about their inability to compete in the national market on commercial terms.”
Source: Lloyd’s List Daily Commercial News – www.lloydslistdcn.com.au
 
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