THE FINAL shipment of 9500 tonnes of old railway sleepers which spanned from Kalgoorlie to Esperance has been shipped out of the Port of Esperance.

The sleepers are on their way to Korea as part of a metal recycling project facilitated by Sims Metal, a business division of ASX-listed company Sims.

The final shipment was a four day process of loading bulk recycled metal into the bulk carrier Ultra Vanscoy from Berth 2 at the Port of Esperance.

Twenty-thousand tonnes of scrap metal has been shipped from Esperance over the five-year project, designed for offshore recycling into low grade structure steel.

Southern Ports CEO Keith Wilks said iron ore and grain underpin trade at the Port of Esperance, but Southern Ports is looking to support new customers and extend the commodities handled at the port.

“For us, it’s particularly gratifying when that new trade is borne from a regional partnership and has sustainability at its core, like this one with Sims Metal,” Mr Wilks said.

“Sustainability is integral to our future and so for our Port of Esperance to be able to facilitate scrap metal shipments at this scale that will ultimately breathe new life into this material is fantastic.

“We’re pleased to have worked with Sims Metal for the past five years to facilitate these shipments.”

Sims Metal regional operations manager WA David Brackstone said the third and final shipment of scrap metal showcased the positive outcomes regional collaborations can deliver in sustainability.

“We’ve worked with Arc Infrastructure and other suppliers to gather scrap metal from the region to give it a second life,” Mr Brackstone said.

“Metal recycling is at the core of what we do and have done for the past century across Australia, Europe and North America.”

The final shipment took place over four days, loading bulk recycled metal into the Ultra Vanscoy from Berth 2 at the Port of Esperance.

Ultra Vanscoy is headed to Adelaide and Perth to load additional cargo before it makes the 10-day trip to Korea, where the metal will be melted and reused.

The old rail line sleepers had been stored 10 kilometres out of the town of Esperance prior to being shipped last week.

Scrap metal is one of 10 different commodities facilitated by the Port of Esperance, which last year exported 13.6 million tonnes of trade.