Port's dodgy economics on show!
Our beaches are a mess ...... but so is the Port!
Our beaches are on the slide, so where are all the "direct economic benefits" we were promised? Nowhere to be seen it seems.......
Business Spectator online 7 Sep 2009 Terminal decline by Robert Gottliebsen says Asciano, one of the Port of Melbourne’s duopoly operators needs help to sort out the mess it finds itself in.
Gottliebsen notes that having spent $1 billion dollars and with the original plan to extend the Asciano and DP World terminals (the second port operator, owned by Dubai Ports) there is now a move to force Patrick off Webb dock so as to make room for another container berth for a third operator.
Gottliebsen predicts that Melbourne will have wasted its money, because the number of large ships that the berths can handle will be hamstrung by a lengthy court battle – (and surely the Global Financial Crisis and its aftermath).
He predicts a price war which might end up in investment in the Asciano and DP World facilities no longer being worthwhile.
How silly it seems to try to maintain a “deep sea” port in a shallow polluted river that requires constant dredging, is the most southerly and difficult port to navigate, is furthest from our trading partners, three hours steaming from the open sea and right in the middle of Melbourne – just to please a couple of fickle shipping interests.
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