If … watch this space as exporting industries fail

There is an international shipping service that has been calling in Bell Bay for many years.

This service is the AAA service and it is a conglomerate of four shipping lines that share space on vessels that call Bell Bay every week.

The service rotation is Bell Bay, Fremantle, Singapore, Brisbane, Sydney, Bell Bay. This service, for many, is the conduit for trade between Tasmania and the rest of the world.

A direct international shipping service from Bell Bay to the world’s largest transhipment hub (Singapore) enables Tasmania to ship its produce, manufactured and mining goods from Tasmania to export markets.

Without this service Tasmanian exporters will be forced to ship its exportable goods over Bass Strait to connect with Melbourne calling international ships. This is at a considerable higher price as freight equalisation does not extend to exported goods and everyone knows that Bass Strait is one of the most expensive pieces of water on the planet. If the AAA service leaves Tasmania, many of our exported products would be in danger of not being viable due to the high cost of freight and logistics.

With ANL dropping its call in Bell Bay and effectively giving its freight to Toll out of Burnie (call it a partnership if it makes you feel good) and now the Tasmanian government owned rail service pulling its services out of Bell Bay, I have concerns that the bigger picture is not being considered.

The reason being given for the rail being pulled out of Bell Bay is due to large volume exporters now shipping their products from Hobart to Burnie and then across Bass Strait to Melbourne to connect with international vessels.

The question has to be asked how it can be more cost effective for large volume exporters to pack goods into domestic containers, rail them from Hobart to Burnie, ship them over Bass Strait, unpack and then repack the goods into export containers and then transport to an international wharf for an international ship to take them from Melbourne to an overseas destination as opposed to packing the goods into an international container on site in Hobart, rail to Bell Bay and ship directly from Bell Bay to the overseas destination.

The easy answer is that Tasmania is a domestic import state and the imbalance of containers going out on the domestic shipping services is being compensated the the likes of Tolls and ANL by providing low prices to large volume exporters to ship over Burnie to Melbourne. But what is the cost to Tasmania in the long run? If this volume has been taken off the AAA service and is being shipped out of Melbourne port, where are the export statistics being reported (I will run down the street naked if Melbourne port are not reporting the volumes as exported out of their State).

Take out a significant infrastructure component to Bell Bay and how long with the likes of AAA consider Tasmania as a serious port of call to ship Tasmanian exports (already there is a possible new domestic service being rumoured to service Bell Bay – Melbourne but pushing to take the AAA volume as feeder cargo to justify the service). Why would any federal government seriously consider putting A$150 million into a port that has a very sad looking future if they wouldn’t provide it at the last budget when the future was looking reasonable. There is a rumour, well more than a rumour, expect it to be quietly effected over the next couple of weeks) that MSC (the other international calling shipping line calling Bell Bay) is pulling out of Bell Bay.

Strike three…..is AAA next.

I despair that no one seems to be taking this seriously. It is all well for the government to tout that they still consider Bell Bay to the best option for shipping ex Tasmania, but what are they doing about it. Sure, a Brighton Hub is going to be a good thing for Tasmania, sure the rail is better in the hands of the State now than in the hands of somebody that doesn’t want it. There are some good things happening, but I worry that that what is happening commercially by big transport and shipping companies (Toll and ANL) for short term fix for their own profit and situation, does not do well for the rest of the State.

If we lose AAA in Bell Bay and exporters have to rely of shipping via Melbourne for exporting their goods then watch this space as exporting industries fail.