Tanjung Priok super port - WorldCargo News Online

NEWS PORT NEWS
Asciano cuts back budget
Subdued market conditions at wharves
and onshore have led Australia’s Asciano
to shave more than A$250M from its
capital expenditure budget over the
next two years.
Releasing 3Q/FY13 data at a Sydney
conference, Asciano chief executive
John Mullen said the planned current
year spend of A$700M-$800M would
be cut to A$575M-625M “in line with
tougher economic conditions,” while
FY14 investment would drop from
A$800M-900M to A$700M-800M.
The period represented an investment
peak due to the Patrick Port Botany
terminal redevelopment and significant
replacement capex catch-up, but ongoing
annual expenditure was expected to
be A$300M from FY15.
The group reported a 4.1% fall in
container lifts compared to the previous
comparable quarter (444,000 TEU
v 463,000 TEU in 2012), with Melbourne
and Brisbane Patrick terminals
showing positive results, but Fremantle
and Port Botany lower, the latter despite
continued productivity improvement.
Ahead of the part-automation of Port
Botany and considering the reduced
volumes - one client service closed and
VSA contracts shed throughput - the
company will accelerate some redundancies
into 4Q.
Pacific National intermodal volumes
slipped 3.4% on a net-tkm basis, but
steel volumes rose. PN Coal saw strong
contract growth in Queensland and
south-eastern Australia, but actual volumes
slipped.
There was strong growth in vessels
stevedored at bulk ports (up 27.5%),
imported vehicle movements (up 20%)
and storage days (78.4%), the latter as
vehicle importers took advantage of
favourable currency exchange rates to
grow their local market.
Mullen said revenue and earnings
before interest and taxes for the second
half of the 2013 financial year were
ZHEN HUA 21 arriving in Fremantle to deliver
one ZPMC post-Panamax STS crane
(Photo: Fremantle Ports)
still expected to be higher than the last
corresponding period. This was conditional
on “no further changes in the
economic outlook or customer commitments.”
At the time of writing, Patrick is in
the process of taking delivery of a further
four ZPMC post-Panamax STS
cranes for its Australian terminals. ZHEN
HUA 21 arrived at Fremantle on 15 May
to discharge one unit before sailing,
depending on weather forecasts, either
northabout or southabout, to Brisbane
to unload a second. The two partlyerected
cranes are destined for Melbourne,
where they must pass beneath
the West Gate Bridge to reach Patrick’s
Swanson Dock facility. The 104.5m
tall cranes have a 50m outreach and a
backreach of 18m. The Fremantle and
Brisbane cranes are expected to be operational
by late June, with Melbourne’s
up-and-running in August.
Queensland ports now for sale …
The Queensland Government is likely
to privatise the ports of Townsville
and Gladstone after an audit of the state’s
finances recommended asset sales as a
key contributor to regaining a AAA
credit rating.
The Queensland Commission of
Audit (QCA), undertaken by former
federal treasurer Peter Costello, argued
that public ownership of GOCs (government-owned
corporations) is not
necessary once these businesses are “established
and mature.” It also said GOCs
represent “commercial risks” to government,
given the “entrenched public service
culture that lacks the flexibility required
to compete in the private sector.”
The report’s executive summary -
all that was initially released for public
scrutiny - focused on the possible sale
of government-owned energy assets,
but included funds management (the
Queensland Investment Corporation),
public transport (Queensland Rail Limited)
- and ports.
These comprised a list of businesses
Western Australia’s government has
hinted it will follow its New South
Wales and Queensland counterparts
in “transferring” some port assets to
the private sector, in a quest for
increased efficiencies, but does not
want to lose the returns they generate
for taxpayers.
Addressing a Perth conference at
which the government released its Regional
Freight Network Strategy, treasurer
Troy Buswell revealed that some
of WA’s eight port authorities were already
looking at the possibilities, but
he denied the process could be described
as privatisation.
Quoted in local media, Buswell said
he had a strong view on the need to
“capable of being owned and managed
efficiently by the private sector” where
there is no need for government to tie
up scarce capital nor be required to provide
additional capital to support ongoing
viability.
No GOC ports were identified in the
executive summary, but in the QCA’s
interim report, released late last year,
the following were named: Far North
Queensland Ports Corp, North Queensland
Bulk Ports Corp, Port of Townsville
Limited and Gladstone Ports Corp.
Although FNQPC was subsequently
ruled out, and NQBPC excluded because
parts of its portfolio are already
privatised (eg Abbot Point Coal Terminal),
the government was less than definitive
about Townsville and Gladstone.
In response to vociferous local opposition,
state treasurer Tim Nicholls
refused to rule out privatisation, but premier
Campbell Newman told a Gladstone
function his “personal view” was
that ports should remain in public hands:
“I have a very firm view that ports are
…and West Oz too
generate returns for taxpayers: “I did
some sums the other day and over the
last 10 years the ports and by extension,
their users, have very generously
through tax and dividend payments
contributed A$400M to state finances.
This year I expect our ports will generate
A$170M profit.”
As previously reported, WA’s port
amalgamation plan, which will see
seven existing authorities (other than
Fremantle) merged into four, is due to
take effect from 1 July. Boswell said that
as part of the reform package external
financial advisers had started working
with port authorities “to help gauge the
value of the assets and the rate of return
required.”
a vital part of the mix for any government
in how you get economic outcomes.
Once you sell them off, you have
no policy control over them,” Newman
said. However, he went on to stress that
this was his personal position and that
the government could decide otherwise
- which it did.
Releasing the full QCA report at the
end of April, the government announced
it would adopt most recommendations,
including the effective privatisation of
the two ports - not, technically, via a sale
but through the offer off 99-year leases
(as has already occurred with Brisbane
and recently, in NSW, with Port Kembla
and Port Botany).
In Townsville a Pricewaterhouse-
Coopers business survey found 66% opposed
any port sell-off while Gladstone’s
mayor said “We are devastated this asset
will be lost to the community for
generations to come.” The Queensland
Government has stated no sale will occur
ahead of the next state election, due
in 2015.
He cited commodity trader Bunge’s
recent development of grain-handling
infrastructure at Bunbury, making
alternative use of the port’s woodchip
loader, as an example of a “new and
innovative partnership with the
private sector” that could result in
the freeing-up of capital and greater
efficiencies.
“I know that some ports are looking
at some of these forms of innovation.
This is not in my view privatisation. It
is effectively providing or transferring
assets to the private sector within a state
and port.”
The RFNS found that significant
public and private investment would
be needed in all WA’s ports - including
nine operating outside the port authority
system - to meet a doubling of
throughput to 1 Btpa by 2030.
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