Three’s a crowd at Brisbane

The port’s chief executive Russell Smith said that he had some concerns about excess capacity in the stevedoring sector.

Answering a questioner at a logistics conference, he said he had not been involved when the decision was made to select Hutchison Port Holdings to become the third stevedore alongside Asciano/Patrick and DP World at Brisbane.

He explained that while a third stevedore at Melbourne made sense with throughput approaching 3m teu, it did not make a lot of sense to have that situation in Brisbane which is only approaching just over 1m teu.

Mr Smith’s comments add weight to previously-expressed concerns from Asciano/Patrick that the market is simply too small for three container stevedores to achieve long-term viability.

Such competition is welcomed however by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission which feels it will prevent a “cosy duopoly”.