The board of the state’s largest grain handler has approved the company’s $55 million Kwinana fertiliser facility, a project it believes will lower fertiliser costs and increase supply consistency.
In October, CBH Group unveiled plans to develop a facility for the storage of dry and liquid urea ammonium nitrate fertiliser products near the Kwinana Grain Terminal, adjacent to its existing operation.
The plan involved the clearing of 5.2 hectares of vegetation to construct storage facilities, an evaporation pond, access roads, truck washdown bays, a site office and amenities across four lots owned by DevelopmentWA, CBH Group, Main Roads WA and the Water Corporation.
The company also plans to construct a pipeline along the grain terminal jetty within the Rockingham Industrial Zone, with the fertiliser imported on shipping carriers and pumped via the pipeline.
CBH Group chair Simon Stead said the expansion supported the organisation's efforts to lower fertiliser costs and increase the consistency of supply for the state’s grain growers, with the facility designed to provide further expansion opportunities into the future.
“After achieving year-on-year growth of about 30 per cent since entering the market in 2015, CBH Fertiliser has reached maximum capacity at its currently leased facilities,” he said.
“With the approval of a custom-built storage facility near Kwinana Grain Terminal, CBH Fertiliser will begin a new phase of growth that will see the business enter the liquid fertiliser market and expand its granular fertiliser offering.
“The expansion of the business seeks to reduce growers’ on-farm input costs, which has been a strategy of the cooperative for some years, and improve the consistency of UAN supply in WA.”
The proposal received the unanimous support of the Joint Development Assessment Panel in July, just months after being endorsed by the EPA, the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation and Environment Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson.
The development is expected to generate $200 million in revenue through fertiliser imports business, increases in grain production and exports.
Construction on the project is expected to begin early next year and be completed in the first half of 2023, with about 400 jobs expected to be created over the duration of the construction period.
The industrial area is already home to Wesfarmers’ CSBP metropolitan depot.
Canadian potash company Nutrien is also looking to boost its storage capacity in Kwinana.
