ICT for Port of Burnie

 

Australia’s largest stevedore DP World Australia today confirmed that it had entered into an exclusive agreement with the Tasmanian Ports Corporation, Tasports, under which the two parties will work together to provide an international container terminal at the Port of Burnie in North West Tasmania.

Brian Gillespie, Chief Corporate Development Officer at DP World Australia, said: “We believe that the time is right to develop such a facility in Tasmania.

“The proposed changes in the Coastal Shipping Act 2015 will make it attractive for international container shipping lines to call at Tasmania if suitable facilities exist,” Mr Gillespie said.

Announcing the plan, Tasports CEO Paul Weedon welcomed the commitment by DP World Australia to progress their plans to develop a full-service international container terminal in Burnie.

Mr Weedon said: “The proposed enhancement will not only increase capacity at the port but will provide new options for the Tasmanian import and export industry to access the world’s major markets.”

Tasports recently delivered 30 Year Port Plan clearly identified Burnie as the State’s future largest natural gateway for container freight into and out of the State.

Mr Gillespie said allowing access to regular international container serviceswould significantly reduce shipping costs for export and import containerised freight.

“On our estimates, the cost of shipping a 20-foot container from Tasmania to Shanghai would reduce from around $2,800 to around $1,350,” he said.

"The costs of freight to domestic locations such as Sydney and Brisbane would attract similar tariff reductions which would be a substantial boost for Tasmanian producers.”

Mr Gillespie said that the Port of Burniehad been chosen as the most suitable for providing such facilities.

“As a coastal sea port with supporting infrastructure, we believe Burnie is the best option for a new facility to be able to cater for large ships in the decades ahead.

“Due to the foresight of Tasports, TasRail and Toll, Burnie is also directly connected to an intermodal rail facility which will allow containerised freight to be railed safely and efficiently to Launceston and Hobart.”

“Tasports will work with DP World Australia to investigate the supporting port infrastructure requirements including channels, berth capacity and enhancements to navigational aids and technology.

“Once fully developed, the new container terminal is planned to handle the equivalent of 200,000 TEU[1] per annum.”

DP World Australia’s investment would include:

 * refurbishing the existing ship-to-shore crane
 * providing an additional ship-to-shore crane
 * developing the container yard for general and refrigerated containers
 * integrating the yard with the existing rail terminal providing yard container handling equipment.

“We will also be recruiting a new workforce with 40 new positions required at launch with the workforce growing to over 60 in a few years,” Mr Gillespie said.

The proposal is subject to the enactment of the Coastal Shipping Act 2015 which will allow container vessels operated by international shipping lines to carry domestic containerised freight between Australian ports.

The provisional launch date for the new facility is January 2017.