Geoff Dalgliesh, Secretary, Shipping Australia’s Queensland Committee writes:
“Sometimes its difficult to know where to start on issues affecting our ports in Queensland and their importance when you’re looking at a full year of events.
Exports are up in most ports due volumes of agricultural such as grains and cotton whilst imports are down due mainly to our cost-of-living issues over the last eighteen months and the drop in the value of the Australian dollar.
Although container imports are down, the reverse is happening in the motor vehicle trade which is up more than 10% in both Brisbane and Townsville, which are the main ports for this commodity.
Coal exports are either level with or up across all ports in the State that are involved in this commodity along with other bulk commodities such as building products, iron and steel etc.
There are also a number of solar windfarm projects being either in the building phase or planned stage for the future which will see continued growth over the next twelve months”.
Geoff also discusses a wide range of other matters, including the Brisbane Cross River Rail Project, stevedoring in Gladstone, channel development at Brisbane and port developments at Townsville and Mackay, and coastal shipping among other matters.