News
06.05.2009
Australian regulator eyes grain port access
Australia's wheat regulator on Tuesday weighed into the controversy surrounding delays to wheat shipments, calling on grains firms to make submissions to the country's competition commission. Australia's grain ports are operated by firms that are also traders, which other grain traders have suggested gives them an unfair advantage in Australia's recently deregulated industry.
Complaints arose after a surge in demand for port services by grain traders earlier this year caused shipping delays, resulting in Australia losing sales to some of its biggest customers such as Indonesia. Regulator Wheat Export Australia (WEA) on Tuesday called on grain firms to make submissions to an Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) inquiry into port access undertakings given by the grain port operators.
"This is a great opportunity for those involved in the wheat industry to have their say, to ensure fair and transparent access to port terminals," said WEA Chief Executive Peter Woods in a statement. The ports in each major growing region are operated as monopolies.
On Australia's east coast GrainCorp Ltd operates six grain ports, in South Australia ABB Grains Ltd operates four ports while in Western Australia, farmer-owned CBH Group operates four grain ports. The three companies have provided the ACCC with access undertakings that will be assessed by the regulator, taking into account submissions received.
In March, Mike Chaseling, vice-chairman of grain trading firm, Emerald Group, told an industry conference that there was a lack of transparency in the operation of grain ports. CBH expects to unveil a plan later this month to permanently overcome shipping congestion that slowed the pace of grain exports from Western Australia earlier this year.
In March CBH introduced a temporary system of allocating ship berths after its grain handling capacity was stretched to the limit when exporters rushed to fill export orders soon after the state's 2008/09 winter grain crop was harvested. It was the first harvest involving multiple grain exporting firms following last year's scrapping of a monopoly over wheat exports from Australia held by AWB Ltd, the former Australian Wheat Board.
Reuters
