BUILDING magnate Len Buckeridge is considering going to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission with complaints about Fremantle Ports, which controls shipping access in the Perth metropolitan area.
In a letter to Premier Colin Barnett obtained by WA Business News, Mr Buckeridge claims a Fremantle Ports official told him that his company, BGC, could be stopped from using the AMC to unload gypsum.
Mr Buckeridge has long complained about the prices that Fremantle Ports charges and claimed the state agency has been a staunch opponent of a rival port development at James Point in Kwinana in which he has a significant interest.
The building magnate has written to the premier appealing for intervention in his dispute with several state government departments and agencies regarding his plans to bring gypsum down from Cape Cuvier, north of Shark Bay, to supply his plasterboard manufacturing operation in Hazelmere.
In one letter, Mr Buckeridge wrote that he had advice that Fremantle Ports could be breaching the Trade Practices Act with regard to control over port access and pricing.
“Our proposals to escape the tyranny of Fremantle Ports’ illegal conduct was the root cause of seeking to backload gypsum from Cape Cuvier to Jervoise Bay AMC,” Mr Buckeridge states in one piece of correspondence.
Mr Buckeridge told WA Business News he would consider taking his concerns to the ACCC but had not yet done so.
BGC wants to use the northbound barges to deliver cargo such as transportable housing and precast concrete to the Pilbara and backfill them with gypsum from operations at Lake MacLeod near Cape Cuvier, which is operated by Rio Tinto.
Mr Buckeridge said he was negotiating with Rio Tinto to take over the gypsum mine that currently supplies BGC.
In addition to using the AMC wharves, Mr Buckeridge wants, for logistical purposes, to buy nearby land from LandCorp, another state agency with which he has butted heads in recent times.
BGC produces about 15 million square metres of plasterboard in Western Australia, two thirds of which is destined for the east coast.
Echoing previous threats to relocate operations offshore, Mr Buckeridge said he would move plasterboard production to Thailand if he could not secure cost-effective port access for the gypsum. Furthermore, he said BGC would have to truck 10,000 tonnes of gypsum per week to Perth while a new offshore plant was developed.
