OCEANIA

DP World dismisses report

5 years ago

DP World Australia has objected to a report that found Australian ports are underperforming.

The Dubai-headquartered logistics company said it was “surprised at the weight attributed to” ‘The Container Port Performance Index 2020’ (CPPI), released by The World Bank in association with IHS Markit, in the 2020-21 ACCC Stevedoring Monitoring Report.

The ACC said the CPPI report showed that “even before the pandemic disruption, Australian container ports were relatively inefficient and well below international best practice. The study ranked Australia’s largest container ports, Melbourne and Sydney, in the bottom 15 per cent and 10 per cent respectively, of the 351 global ports in the study”.

More scrutiny needed

However, DP World said the findings requires further scrutiny. It said during the Covid-19 pandemic, Australian Ports have outperformed many other international container ports.

DP World Australia CEO, Andrew Adam, said: “The industry has seen, in the period since the report data was collected, that waiting times of vessels for an available berth has grown significantly at some international ports. Additionally, some Asian ports have entirely shut down in the past year, causing major disruption to global shipping schedules and supply chains. To ensure an appropriate representation of data in future releases from IHS Markit, the report should reflect the time ships are at anchor outside ports awaiting a berth, and not just ‘time on berth’.”

Australian ports have historically achieved low waiting times at anchor, due to excess berth capacity at all Australian Container Terminals, as compared globally, due in part to the investment of both Port Owners and Stevedores, said DP World.

The company pointed to the impact of industrial action by the Maritime Union of Australia at all DP World Australian sites throughout 2019.

It noted that prior to 2019, approximately 70% of vessel calls arrived in Australian Ports on schedule. Over the last 15 months, which has coincided with the end of industrial action impacting DP World Australia, less than 10% of vessels have arrived on schedule, due to delays in overseas ports.