THE PORT of Newcastle is establishing an empty container park at its Mayfield 4 berth, adjacent to its multipurpose terminal.
At a press conference on Monday (6 February), state member for Newcastle Tim Crakanthorp said, “How awesome is this, the port of Newcastle having this empty container park – the world’s biggest coal port does have to diversify. And here we are today diversifying.
“It was only a couple of months ago that we were opening up these amazing cranes that are the beginning of the container terminal’s progress to show to demonstrate to all of Australia and all of the world that Newcastle port is open for business when it comes to shipping containers.”
Port of Newcastle CEO Craig Carmody in a statement said in the financial year ending 30 June 2022, more than 60% of New South Wales’ exported containers were empty.
“Empty container management is a vital function for efficient container trade operations,” Mr Carmody said.
“Empty container parks aid in managing the imbalance between imports and exports that exists within Australian container operations by assisting container flow.”
The port said agri-businesses throughout the Hunter, New England and NSW’s north west would be beneficiaries of its new empty container service.
Port of Newcastle senior manager of business development Kate McArthur said in the future, access to a ready supply of empty containers would allow farmers to export more produce.
“Having access to empty containers aids speed to market, which allows exporters to take advantage of opportunities and capitalise on good prices. We are hopeful by working with farmers, business owners and other key stakeholders we can continue to develop infrastructure to better serve the needs of our future customers,” Ms McArthur said.
“A challenge for agri-businesses, particularly in the last few seasons, has been accessing empty containers to fill and send back to port.
“With growth of our operations and capabilities, we aim, over time, to fill this gap in the market and ensure our farmers and agri-businesses have every opportunity to take full advantage of large harvest seasons and export their product effectively and efficiently,” she said.
Back-of-berth hardstand expansion works are currently underway at the Multipurpose Terminal, with waterside works to begin later in the year to accommodate larger vessels.
Ms McArthur said the empty container park would begin as a storage facility that would grow into maintenance and cleaning facilities.
“We’re not short of hectares of vacant land so we’ll grow as the market grows.”
She said the new facility would be operated by Port of Newcastle and have a capacity of 2000 TEU.
Progress towards a container terminal
The Port of Newcastle is progressing towards lifting the penalty on container throughput over a certain threshold through the Port of Newcastle (Extinguishment of Liability) Bill 2022, which passed the NSW Parliament in November.
The bill requires the port to write to the state Treasurer to request he starts an independent assessment to find out what the port lease would have cost without the container penalty. Port of Newcastle would then have to pay the difference.
At Monday’s press conference, Port of Newcastle senior manager, corporate affairs and strategy Lucas Coleman said, “The Treasurer was written to in December of last year, requesting the process begin and we’re now just waiting to hear when that appointment occurs, like everyone else.
“The Deputy Premier was here last week, and he said they are working and committed to doing that before caretaker period and we’re eager to see that happen also.”
The caretaker period ahead of the 2023 NSW general election is slated to begin on 3 March.
Mr Crakanthorp said, “With regards to the selection of the eminent person [to conduct the assessment], the government needs to get a real move on with that – it does not have a long time to do that.”
