The Australian ports industry has been warned that urban encroachment could soon force the country’s seven major city ports to surrender business to regional competitors.
The managing director of Asiaworld Shipping Services, Ken Fitzpatrick, told the Maritime Logistics Conference 2012 in Sydney that land near the major ports is too expensive to sustain them, and residents hampered port development by complaining about light and noise pollution.
It made sense for governments to sell the land and instead develop a number of alternate ports in each state to take “a share of the load” in future.
