The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission last week issued its ninth annual monitoring report covering revenues, costs and profits of container terminal operations in Australia's major ports for 2006/7.
"In general, the results of the report show an industry that has expanded capacity (and) become more efficient and productive", says ACCC chairman, Graeme Samuel.
"However, these results also show that Australian stevedoring continues to report returns on assets which can only persist where price competition can be largely avoided. This underlines the ongoing importance of competition as a factor for port managers and state governments to consider as they plan for the expected increase in container volumes over the next decade."
The report also notes some progress in improving the efficiency with which containers are moved between the terminals, trucks and trains.
It shows that at Australia's largest container terminals, average revenues and costs for stevedoring activities fell, while productivity levels improved. This contrasts with a trend over recent years of rising unit revenues and costs and falling productivity. Stevedoring margins continued to increase in 2006/7 to record high levels as the fall in unit costs was proportionately greater than the fall in unit revenues.
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