Melbourne port bottleneck can choke rural exports

The Port of Melbourne is becoming a bottleneck that could choke rural exports, according to the Australian shipping industry.


As the nation's largest international container port, Melbourne is crucial to southeast Australia's dairy and grain industries, reported The Weekly Times.


But Shipping Australia chief executive Llew Russell said past and present state governments had failed to make any real investment in the port to alleviate growing congestion at the docks and within the terminals.


The Port of Melbourne forecasts trade would grow from 1.9 million TEUs last financial year to 2.71 million TEUs by 2015 and 3.55 million TEUs by 2020.


Yet the Victorian Government's plan to expand the Port of Hastings to alleviate Melbourne's congestion would take at least 10 years, and more likely 15, to develop, Russell said.


Another government plan to shift car shipments from Melbourne's Webb Dock to Geelong has also been dismissed by industry analysts as too expensive and unlikely to go ahead.


Russell said the industry desperately needed a stop-gap measure to deal with the port's immediate problems while awaiting the Hastings' upgrade.


He said if action wasn't taken costs would rise, reducing the port's and state's competitiveness, while road congestion escalates around the port.


Engineers Australia's latest infrastructure report highlighted the need for the government to invest in a new network of suburban freight terminals to take pressure off the Port of Melbourne.


Russell said the port needed to move all car shipments to Webb Dock West to free up three berths for the new super (6000-7000 container) ships at the end of the dock. These 318m container ships are restricted from travelling up the Yarra River to Swanson Dock, due to the limited turning circle. Webb Dock is at the mouth of the river.


The government also needs to establish intermodal hubs around Melbourne where containers can be carted and emptied as well as a rail line into DP World's site to get containers off trucks and on to trains, he said.


In 2009-10, the port's top commodity exports included miscellaneous manufactured goods, cereal grains, beverages and dairy products.
(Source:http://www.cargonewsasia.com)