Melbourne-based transport company Asciano currently operates container terminals in Fremantle, Port Botany, Fisherman Islands in Brisbane and East Swanson Dock in Melbourne, and is aiming to challenge Queensland Rail’s current monopoly of the state’s coal transport market.

Bulk transport is very much on the cards of the company, which plans to take advantage of Queensland’s huge projected growth in coal production over the next three years.

Looking further ahead, Asciano said at an investor presentation on May 7 that it intends to make an impact on what is currently a high-growth, monopoly market.

The company said that while there is currently a continued strong demand for export coal coupled with record coal prices, demand would not be met because of:

• supply chain capacity issues at mines, on railways and in ports;
• ongoing delays in infrastructure improvements, and
• weather-related issues.

Asciano is aiming to leverage this by commencing its own coal haulage services in the second half of the 2009 calendar year, which will follow a total investment in the business of $529 million.

Some of that amount will go towards the purchase of new diesel and electric locomotives, which are expected to go towards an anticipated growth in transported coal to 30 million tonnes per annum by 2011.

An Asciano spokesperson told MiningNewsPremium.net the Queensland Coal market is expected to continue to grow significantly in the future, and that one of Asciano’s intentions is to bring competitive tension to this high-growth market.

“Asciano plans to capture approximately 30 million tonnes per annum of the Queensland coal haulage market by 2011,” she said. “We have ordered locomotives and are in the final stages of negotiations with large coal customers in Queensland.”

The spokesperson also said Asciano is well advanced with its plans and expects to commence coal haulage operations in Queensland in 2010.

Of particular interest to Asciano is the opportunity to capitalise on growth stemming from the Northern Missing Link project, which will connect the Goonyella and Newlands rail systems with the Abbot Point coal terminal. Adding to the opportunities here is a planned 25Mtpa expansion at Abbot Point.

Further infrastructure expansions are scheduled around the Southern Missing Link, which will see rail connecting the Surat Basin with the new Wiggins Island Coal Terminal planned to be built near Gladstone.

The Wiggins Island Coal Terminal is expected by its main proponent – the Central Queensland Ports Authority – to cost $3.5 billion. The project is planned to be completed in three stages, with the first set to be finished by 2012 at a cost of $1.3 billion.

Wiggins Island is expected to have a capacity of 84Mtpa once all three stages are complete, bringing the total throughput of Gladstone Port to 150Mtpa.

Other port expansions that are expected to further add to the coal transport task in Queensland in coming years are the Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal at Hay Point, expected to expand from 97Mtpa to 142Mtpa by 2010, and Abbot Point, which will go from 15Mtpa to 25Mtpa.

Asciano listed on the Australian Stock Exchange on June 5, 2007.

Pacific National is a major provider of bulk haulage services grain and bulk industrial products, and provides interstate rail freight services to freight forwarders and steel manufacturers.

Through the Toll-owned Patrick ports and stevedoring business, Asciano also operates container terminals with operations in Australia’s four largest container ports, and provides a network of ports-related freight services and logistics to importers and exporters.

Toll took over Patrick in April 2006 for $5.8 billion, creating one of the largest transport and logistics companies in the world.