Ports plan for bulk increase

Trade throughput at Western Australia’s eight principal ports is projected to increase by an average of 12 per cent annually over the next four years, according to the Department of Planning and Infrastructure’s director-general, Greg Martin.

Mr Martin said expansion programs were being planned despite the current lack of physical capacity restraints facing WA’s ports.

Total throughput for the ports of Esperance, Albany, Bunbury, Fremantle, Geraldton, Dampier, Port Hedland and Broome during 2003-04 reached 250 million tonnes, with nearly 180mt, primarily iron ore, exiting the state’s two major bulk Pilbara operations of Port Hedland and Dampier.

If Mr Martin’s departmental throughput projections across the eight ports are realised, total tonnage exiting WA in 2008-09 will reach in the order of 330mt.

Mr Martin’s outline of the eight ports was presented to a Committee for Economic Development of Australia forum focusing on the needs, priorities and investment strategies required to meet future infrastructure require-ments.

“In almost every case, industry is approaching our port authorities with proposals for significant export expansion through existing or new commodities,” Mr Martin said.

“The expansion of trade is not confined to our north-west.

“We have already witnessed grain exports at the southern ports supplemented, and in some cases overtaken, by the shipping of minerals and other primary commodities.

“We are expecting substantial increases in trade passing through the ports of Geraldton, Fremantle, Bunbury, Albany and Esperance.”

Although these five southern ports have traditionally been venues for the export of grain, forest products and livestock, this profile has begun to markedly change.

Esperance has emerged as a primarily ore-exporting port with Koolyanobbing iron ore and nickel from the southern Goldfields being major existing commodities.

“We are therefore planning and gearing up to meet this demand,” Mr Martin said.

The Department of Planning and Infrastructure is working with all port authorities to assess the impact of approaches by port users in respect to port land use planning, port/community interface management and community relationships.

“From a government and port perspective, the recurring issues arising with reference to port investment and its timing, include commodity volumes and certainty about timing triggers for expansion, impact of new commodities to be stored and handled, availability of common user and/or single user port infrastructure, and the mix of public/private investment,” Mr Martin told the CEDA forum.

“Here in the west, it’s fair to say we are not facing the physical capacity constraints as expressed by govern-ments and businesses in the east.

“However, this is not to say that there are not significant challenges and choices facing us in the future as we strive to fully realise our economic potential, and take advantage of opportunities flowing from the presently increasing demand for raw materials.

“We can anticipate that Port Hedland, which is already the largest iron ore port in the world, and other Pilbara ports will require upgrades as major projects come on-stream.”

Mr Martin said future infrastructure expansion and needs should be seen against the background of lower public outlays in recent years.

“Government capital expenditure as a share of Gross Domestic Product has fallen from just over 7 per cent in the 1970s and early 1980s to a low of 3.6 per cent in 2003-04, with investment in roads falling by over half,” he said.

“Private sector investment in infrastructure has jumped to 21 per cent of GDP due to the Commonwealth and states privatising some of their utilities.”