Australia's Kembla to be second NSW terminal
The NSW government has confirmed Port Kembla, in Wollongong, will serve as the state's second container terminal after Port Botany, as it pushes ahead with plans to privatise the assets next year and raise up to US$3 billion, reported The Australian Financial Review.
Treasurer Mike Baird has signed off on the sale, which will kick off officially in the December quarter this year. The deal is expected to be completed in the first half of 2013.
Baird said the government had considered a scoping study for the transactions – received earlier this year from advisers Morgan Stanley – "and, based on this advice, we have decided to proceed with long-term leases on both assets".
Baird announced in his second budget in June that Port Kembla would be added to the sale of Port Botany, the state's largest container port, to boost the proceeds by about $500 million. Both ports will be offered on 99-year leases.
"Investors will have the opportunity to acquire both ports," NSW Ports Minister Duncan Gay said.
The Port Botany sale will include a transfer of a freight hub at Cooks River near Sydney Airport and the site of a proposed freight hub at Enfield in Sydney's inner west, which is expected to be operational in 2013.
The federal government and the private sector are pushing ahead with plans for freight hubs in Moorebank in Sydney's southwest, which would transport containers to and from Port Botany by rail.
The government said that, in light of the development of the hubs across south and west Sydney, it "would seek to develop Port Kembla as the logical next long-term tranche of container capacity after Port Botany".
It effectively kills plans to develop part of the former BHP steelworks site in Newcastle to serve as the state's second container terminal.
Gay said a ports price-monitoring regime, similar to those used in other capital cities, would be set up "to ensure transparency on pricing outcomes".
