Unchain Port, Minister Warns
Newcastle Herald
Saturday October 11, 2008
AS NEWCASTLE reclaimed the world record for coal exports the State Government and coal producers remain locked in a waterfront battle over a long-term solution to capacity constraints in the Hunter's coal chain that allows room for new investors.
Ports Minister Joe Tripodi said while visiting the Port of Newcastle yesterday any solution which "locked out" future entrants to the Hunter's coal industry was unacceptable to the Government."That sends a signal to global investors that we're not open for business and that is not the case," Mr Tripodi said.He said the Port of Newcastle had reclaimed the world record with exports of 88.88 million tonnes valued at $77.7 billion in the 2007-08 financial year."The increase in demand for coal is exceeding the capacity of the Hunter Valley coal chain but we are still the biggest coal operation in the world," he said.The Government had approved plans that could double the port's coal capacity to more than 200 million tonnes per annum over five years.In a move to remove bottlenecks in the Hunter's coal chain, which saw up to 70 ships queued off the coast last year, the NSW Government hired former premier Nick Greiner in January as a facilitator to broker an industry agreement.Mr Tripodi said the "Greiner process" had achieved a lot."What I'm concerned about is future investors and new entrants into the coal industry being able to secure some of the capacity so that they can get their coal out of the port," Mr Tripodi said."There's a very long lead time in establishing a coal mine and getting it up to production, so we can't send out a signal at any point in time the Newcastle port is closed, that any new entrant is locked out," Mr Tripodi said.He said a meeting of 14 mining companies in Sydney on Thursday did not come up with any answers but he was confident an agreement could be reached next week.
© 2008 Newcastle Herald