Protavia pulp exports to boost Port Adelaide

<p>Increased container-line calls to Adelaide would be a major upshot of a deal between Protavia and Flinders Ports for containerised paper pulp exports from the proposed Penola mill, South Australian Freight Council general manager Neil Murphy said yesterday (Wednesday, September 5).</p> <p>About 750,000 tonnes of pulp is expected to be exported to north Asia annually once the mill, a South Australian Government decision on which is imminent, is built and underway.</p> <p>&#8220It’s a pretty significant development for container throughput &#8211 just in terms of export freight about 30,000 feu &#8211 so, it’s fairly significant volume,&#8221 Mr Murphy said.</p> <p>&#8220There are inputs to come as well chemicals and a variety of other things that they’ll require for the plant.</p> <p>&#8220The second big positive that comes out of it is in terms of services.</p> <p>&#8220The missing link in terms of services is north Asia, so this development presents the opportunity to close that loop and ensure that we have a direct service to north Asia, which will benefit the state’s exporters as a whole.&#8221</p> <p>Port of Portland chief executive Scott Paterson said that although he was disappointed Protavia had chosen to export through the port of Adelaide, Portland, which is the closer, was out of the equation once Protavia had decided to containerise the pulp.</p> <p>The SA Government had retained $10m in rail upgrade funds in its last budget, Mr Murphy said, suggesting an upgrade of the Penola-Welsley line as a possible recipient.</p> <p>He pointed to a rail infrastructure development opportunity in the Green Triangle region that straddled the southeast of his state and the southwest of Victoria, which could boost railed woodchip throughput at Portland.</p> <br />