December 20, 2012
Aurizon and GrainCorp have signed a new sevenâ€year agreement for the rail haulage of grain in South West and Central Queensland, which commenced in December 2012 and runs to November 2019.
The agreement provides for haulage of up to one million tonnes per year from key grain growing regions of Queensland. This includes haulage from the Roma, Thallon and Goondiwindi regions in Southern Queensland into the Fisherman Islands and Pinkenba port terminals in Brisbane, and from the Emerald, Capella and Mt McLaren regions in Central Queensland into the Mackay and Gladstone port terminals.
Under the agreement, current grain wagons will be modified to a fully automatic unloading system with Kwik Drop Doors (presently partial automatic unloading system) improving both productivity and safety for both Aurizon and GrainCorp.
GrainCorp Group General Manager, Storage & Logistics Nigel Hart said that, combined with the long term agreements that will soon be available at GrainCorp's Queensland ports, GrainCorp and other exporters would have greater certainty and improved ability to plan their export programmes.
Aurizon Commercial and Marketing Executive Vice President Paul Scurrah said Aurizon was pleased to continue its longâ€term relationship with a new performanceâ€based agreement.
GrainCorp is Australia's leading agribusiness, with integrated end-to-end grain handling and processing infrastructure in Australia and overseas. Around 90% of eastern Australia's bulk grain exports pass through a GrainCorp port and the company contracts up to six million tonnes per annum of rail freight capacity to transport the grain efficiently to market.
Aurizon is Australia's largest rail freight company with services operating across five states. In 2011-12, Aurizon transported more than 250 million tonnes of freight, including coal, iron ore, other minerals, agricultural products and general freight.
