Townsville port commissions new ship-to-shore Liebherr crane

Resources Minister Scott Stewart is backing huge growth in trade in North Queensland from investments by the state in Townsville’s port and the transition to alternative energies.

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RESOURCES Minister Scott Stewart is backing huge growth in trade in North Queensland from investments by the state in Townsville’s port and the transition to alternative energies.

The Townsville MP commissioned the port’s new ship-to-shore crane and marked the completion of a rock wall for the $232m channel capacity upgrade on Thursday.

“It’s all about growing the port and growing our capacity and capability because it creates those jobs,” Mr Stewart said.

“Around 8000 direct and indirect jobs are associated with this port. We can’t underestimate the power of that.”

The state-owned port has invested about $30m in a new container terminal and Liebherr crane which will more than double the handling capacity of the port’s berth four as well as improve the port’s efficiency by allowing faster turnaround times for ships.

When the channel upgrade is completed in 2023 it will increase the size of ships which can access the port by around 25 per cent to 300m.

The new crane — which at almost 100m high is the highest man-made structure in the city — will provide the additional reach required to service them.

Townsville port CEO Ranee Crosby said they were forecasting a fourfold increase in container trade over the next 30 years.

While the port currently handled around 60,000 containers a year — a figure which was continuing to grow during the pandemic — they were targeting about 150,000 containers carrying product into or out of North Queensland but being handled in capital city ports.

They were also looking to boost capability to service battery manufacturers and metals refiners planning to establish in the city.

She said the fact that the region could support good two-way trade — with full containers into and out of the port — made the city “really attractive for shipping lines”.

Ms Crosby said the city had seen growth of around 17 per cent in the container trade over the past year.

“It’s good growth in the current climate and there’s lot of growth to come,” Ms Crosby said.

Mr Stewart said the state was seeing more and more mineral products being handled in containers as well as a transition to new economy minerals being used in electric vehicles, renewable energy and consumer devices.

He said one of those minerals was vanadium hosted in some of the world’s largest deposits near Julia Creek.

“What we want to see is that products go out of the port to those domestic and international markets,” Mr Stewart said.

Originally published as Townsville port commissions new ship-to-shore Liebherr crane