Governments start bulk blame-game ahead of report

Australia’s bulk port congestion appears to have eased as an inter-government fight over responsibility for congestion heated up again this morning (Monday, August 13). Heavy congestion at the end of June saw more than 170 bulkers queuing off Australia’s bulk ports, 150 for the east coast coal ports alone. The collective east coast queue has since dropped to about 130, with congestion at the port of Hay Point appearing to have steadied. There were 50 bulkers waiting this morning, compared with 58 in late June. Queues at the port of Newcastle have eased from 79 at the start of July, to 55 this morning, cutting 11 days off average waiting times for customers and potentially slashing $11m off the industry’s demurrage bill. Port Waratah Coal Services (PWCS) shipped 3.2m tonnes of coal in the first two weeks of August, according to Newcastle Port Corporation figures, a slight fall because of rail and port maintenance. PWCS handled a record 302,000 tonnes through its dump-stations on August 4, a rate of 110mtpa. The bulkers are waiting 21 days on average, down from 32 at the start of July. It comes as a Federal-State Government slanging match over responsibility for coal port congestion broke out ahead of the tabling of a report examining the integration of road, rail and ports, due this afternoon. The Standing Committee on Transport and Regional Services was commissioned in March 2005, to investigate how the land infrastructure was interacting with port operations and consider how the three levels of government could achieve better efficiency. Federal transport minister Mark Vaile and New South Wales ports minister Joe Tripodi blamed each other for congestion, specifically long queues at Newcastle. Mr Vaile said state governments should allow port corporations to make decisions on a commercial basis, as the east coast bulk ports compared poorly with the more efficient ports in Western Australia. Mr Vaile was quoted in the Australian Financial Review challenging state governments to &#8220end the queuing of these ships off our coast&#8221. But Mr Tripodi said in the case of the Hunter Valley, it was the Federal Government’s Australian Rail Track Corporation that caused congestion, not the port. The report will also examine land transport access to ports, intermodal freight hubs in regional areas and the possible use of intelligent tracking technology. The standing committee’s report was to be tabled in Federal Parliament at 1 pm today.

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