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Port board meets in Mount Gambier

Posted on December 1, 2009, 7:07am

Port of Portland board
South East mayors and development leaders planned to meet with the Port of Portland board last night to discuss the need for transport upgrades in time for the looming bluegum harvest.

The board met at the Lakes Resort yesterday as part of a two-day visit to Mount Gambier with last night’s discussions set to focus on the Green Triangle Freight Access Plan.

Port of Portland chief executive Scott Paterson said Mount Gambier was a key part of the Green Triangle and the base of some of the port’s top customers.

He said the region had to continue to work together to secure state and federal government funding to ensure freight routes were upgraded to allow high productivity vehicles (HPVs) to travel throughout the Green Triangle to the port.

“If you could have a truck carrying 25 tonnes or one with up to 50 tonnes you would choose that,” he said.

“We can have HPVs for the whole chain, including mineral sands and woodchip volumes.”

Mr Paterson said use of the vehicles would halve the truck fleet necessary for the bluegum harvest, reducing the impact on other road users, requiring fewer drivers and lower fuel emissions, while boosting productivity.

“Woodchip is a low volume product and we need the lowest possible costs for the industry,” he said.

Mr Paterson spoke to The Border Watch about the implications of economic recovery and said that while 2009 was “very difficult” for the port as export volumes dropped, progress had been made to prepare for activity ahead.

He said two milestones of the year were securing progress on the freight plan and agreement with Gunns to develop a woodchip export terminal at the port, which would be completed in the second half of 2010.

He said development of the Gunns facility would provide certainty for blue gum infrastructure after the collapse of Timbercorp and Great Southern had thrown export and harvest plans into disarray.

“I’m impressed with how quick it has turned around,” he said, explaining Timbercorp was sold within six months and a decision could be made on the future of Great Southern’s assets before Christmas.

Mr Paterson said while he could not “pick a favourite” to take over the Great Southern estate, the emergence of Gunns as a key bidder provided a “logical choice”.

He said Gunns, which was already Australia’s largest hardwood chip exporter to Japan, would need a huge amount of woodchip if its planned Tasmanian pulp mill proceeded.

On the subject of pulp mills, Mr Paterson said the loss of a potential chip supply agreement with Timbercorp was not necessarily the end of the planned Penola project.

He said there was potential for Protavia to secure new arrangements by offering a better price for the raw product than could be gained on the Asian market as international shipping costs would not be part of the equation.

However, Mr Paterson said he did not expect any announcements on the Penola Pulp Mill in the short term due to the need for the economy to recover further and said the project could be developed in future years.

Meanwhile, he said the delayed bluegum harvest had allowed the region more time to prepare with some transport upgrades now complete and expectations activity would be at a pace of steady growth from late 2010, rather than a sudden boom, allowing time to build the industry’s capacity.

  • Picture: Port of Portland chief executive Scott Paterson (right) pictured at the Lakes Resort yesterday with board members James Fraser Smith, Peter Edmonds, chairman David Looker and Pete Davie.
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