Sydney company ACFS Port Logistics has outlined development plans for an industrial site at Rous Head, after announcing a joint venture with Asciano subsidiary Patrick Port Logistics.
Sydney company ACFS Port Logistics has outlined development plans for an industrial site at Rous Head, after announcing a joint venture with Asciano subsidiary Patrick Port Logistics.
The two companies plan to bring together their national operations, encompassing metropolitan transport, warehousing, container depots and empty container parks.
ACFS’s facility at Rous Head will be a key contribution to the joint venture.
ACFS managing director Arthur Tzaneros, who will be CEO of the joint venture, said the 5.5-hectare Rous Head site would be split into two parts.
Mr Tzaneros said private company Tzaneros Investments planned to start development in the next three months, with the project expected to take up to six months.
The development will include a 4ha empty container park, which will be leased to, and operated by, a second joint venture, Tyne ACFS.
This brings together ACFS with another privately owned Sydney company, Tyne Container Services.
Both will be new players at Fremantle when the facility opens.
Mr Tzaneros said the capacity of the empty park would be between 5,000 and 6,000 ‘TEU’, or 20-foot equivalent containers.
The additional 1.5ha at Rous Head will be leased to ACFS Port Logistics as a transport and container freight station facility.
This will include container storage facilities, warehousing, and AQIS facilities with a container wash bay of about 1,000 square metres.
Mr Tzaneros said the ACFS-Patrick joint venture’s transport activities would operate from the newly developed site.
The ACFS site is one of four at the Rous Head industrial park, which was created by Fremantle Ports using dredge spoil from the harbour deepening.
Rous Head Cargo Services, a joint venture between local company Stevenson Logistics and Container Cargo Specialists, moved into its 5.8ha facility last year.
Toll Group has recently started operations at its 4.3ha facility, even though construction of its 6,000sqm warehouse is still three months from completion.
The fourth site is held by QUBE Holdings, which is developing an empty container park.
ACFS and Patrick said their proposed national joint venture would be reviewed by the ACCC.
The two companies said their geographic footprints were complementary.
ACFS is a market leader in the Port of Sydney, while Patrick has significant strength in Melbourne.
ACFS has also recently developed a purpose-built logistics facility in Brisbane, in close proximity to Patrick’s Fisherman Island container terminal.
ACFS said its facility at Rous Head would complement Patrick’s network of empty container parks on the east coast.
Meanwhile, DP World said the commissioning of its new crane at Fremantle signalled its commitment to the port.
DP World and Patrick are the incumbent stevedores at Fremantle and are going through a tender process to secure future operating rights at the harbour.
The new crane has a hoist height of 38 metres above the wharf with an outreach of 50 metres, allowing it to better service larger vessels.
Its capacity is nearly double that of its predecessor.
