Grain leakage not because of bottlenecks: Graincorp

<p>Graincorp has hit back at suggestions that poor infrastructure is to blame for a shift of grain exports from New South Wales to Melbourne. </p> <p>NSW shadow ports minister Andrew Stoner told the Shipping Australia parliamentary lunch last week that the state was losing key trades to Victoria because its infrastructure was more reliable, a suggestion Graincorp’s chief development officer, Neil Johns, described as &#8220simply untrue&#8221.</p> <p>&#8220There are more capacity problems getting into Melbourne than there are into Port Kembla because you’re using a single line into Melbourne, but a double line most of the way to Port Kembla,&#8221 Mr Johns said.</p> <p>Graincorp’s Port Kembla terminal would be able to handle almost three times more grain each year if needed.</p> <p>&#8220It has capacity to handle 5 or 6m tonnes per annum,&#8221 he said.</p> <p>&#8220We’re doing one and a half to two million tonnes at the most so there is no issue with port capacity.&#8221</p> <p>Mr Johns said Port Kembla handled an average of three grain trains each day, but had successfully managed up to nine each day during peak times.</p> <p>Mr Stoner told delegates at the lunch last week that the NSW economy had slowed because of a lack of coordination in the supply chain.</p> <p>Large volumes of rice from the Riverina region of southern NSW were being sent south to Melbourne for export, instead of through Port Kembla, he said.</p> <p>But Sunrice, which exports the rice, said the use of Melbourne as an exporting port was normal.</p> <p>A spokesperson said the bulk of the rice was sent through Melbourne because it was closer to the company’s processing facilities in the southern NSW township of Deniliquin, about 300 km north of Melbourne. </p> <p>Sunrice would not comment on whether infrastructure bottlenecks had lead to the use of Melbourne instead of Port Kembla.</p> <br />