THE chaos in Victoria’s grain logistics sector has claimed its first casualty – with grain exporter Cargill confirming it will now load a vessel in South Australia rather than Victoria to avoid the logjam caused by an ongoing industrial dispute.
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Cargill spokesman Peter McBride said the vessel, which was due to load with 50,000 tonnes of grain at Geelong in late May, would now be loaded in two stages, with 25,000t to be loaded in Adelaide and only 25,000t now to be loaded at Geelong.
Mr McBride said Cargill would source the grain to load in South Australia from its GrainFlow sites in that State and load using its mobile ship loader at Inner Harbour in Adelaide.
He said at this stage the company would load the remainder of the cargo in Geelong.
“We have made the decision to try and avoid the congestion at Geelong which has been caused by train cancellations.”
The havoc is being caused by a dispute between grain freight operator Pacific National (PN) and its train drivers.
The dispute, centering on a new enterprise bargaining agreement, worsened this week following an announcement by the Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) it would strike for three days this week.
PN responded by locking out workers for the week, meaning an significant number of train cancellations.
Industry sources suggest lost train capacity for the week will easily exceed 50,000 tonnes – a figure not easily made up by replacing rail with road freight.
With grain trains carrying 2200 tonnes of grain each, industry has been scrambling to find enough trucks to move at least some of the grain slated for delivery to port.
Ship loading at the Port of Geelong is already close to a month behind schedule, costing exporters in demurrage fees.
Gregor Heard
Gregor Heard is ACM's national grains industry reporter, based in Horsham, Victoria. He has a wealth of knowledge surrounding the cropping sector through his 15 years in the role. Prior to that he was with the Fairfax network as a reporter with Stock & Land. Some of the major issues he has reported on during his time with the company include the deregulation of the export wheat market, the introduction of genetically modified crops and the fight to protect growers better from grain trader insolvencies. Still involved with the family farm he is passionate about rural Australia and its people and hopes to use his role to act as an advocate for those involved in the grain sector.
Gregor Heard is ACM's national grains industry reporter, based in Horsham, Victoria. He has a wealth of knowledge surrounding the cropping sector through his 15 years in the role. Prior to that he was with the Fairfax network as a reporter with Stock & Land. Some of the major issues he has reported on during his time with the company include the deregulation of the export wheat market, the introduction of genetically modified crops and the fight to protect growers better from grain trader insolvencies. Still involved with the family farm he is passionate about rural Australia and its people and hopes to use his role to act as an advocate for those involved in the grain sector.
