Yesterday’s announcement by NSW Ports, that its new 24/7, 2.4-hectare, empty container park, which is just inside Port Botany, will open in June is a boost for container management efficiency. It comes at an opportune time as shipping services are being disrupted by Covid-19 and keeping containers in the supply chain is more important than ever.
Shipping Australia deputy chief executive officer Melwyn Noronha commented, “the new empty container park at Port Botany has an ideal location within the container supply chain. With over 600,000 TEU empty containers loaded onto vessels annually at the port, empty container parks play a vital role in the supply chain as the final repository, or the initial starting point, for import and export chains.
“The management of both static and dynamic capacities at some empty container parks has been a challenge in recent times. It is envisaged that with a 24/7 service the operational efficiency of the NSW Ports facility will overcome these capacity challenges.”
Located within the port on Simblist Road, the new empty container park is leased by Tyne Container Services and will provide a full-service facility. It adjoins the existing Tyne (MT Movements) container park to effectively ‘super-size’ the site, delivering an additional 5,000 TEU in empty container capacity.
NSW Ports CEO Marika Calfas said the decision to utilise the port land for empty container storage will deliver much needed empty container capacity to support growth and efficiencies in the container supply chain.
“NSW is an import dominant container market, which can lead to high demand for empty container storage capacity during peak seasons. We continue to invest in Port Botany to ensure its ability to efficiently and sustainably cater for trade growth, and through this development we have optimised the utilisation of existing land to create an additional 5000 TEU in container storage capacity to enhance the productivity and efficiency of empty container movements,” she said.
Tyne Container Services Director, Aaron Powell was proud of the announcement. “Through clever design and construction, we’ve been able to create further operational capacity and expand our ability to handle empty container volumes. The new empty container park will have capacity to handle both empty containers bound for overseas re-deployment as well as empty containers for re-use as full exports. This coordinated container movement means we can better service our shipping line customers and we look forward to commencing our new operations in June.”
Construction of the new empty container park was delivered by Ward Civil and took four months to complete.
