Port and rail infrastructure boom down under

[John Ashworth]

Port and rail infrastructure boom down under

Australia builds to feed China and India's appetite for raw materials

Thu, 12 Jan 2012
ifw

Australia is gearing up for an A$112 billion (US$115bn) infrastructure boom, with new ports and railways being built to feed China and India’s appetite for raw materials like coal and iron ore.

There are plans to build 4,000km of new railroads over the next decade, as well as to construct a new port on the Great Barrier Reef coast.

Australia, with a population 40% smaller than California’s, spent $176.5 billion on construction in the 12 months to September 2011 and the planned schemes mean it is now considered the world’s fastest-growing construction market,

Queensland aims to boost capacity of its ports by 28 times, to 385 million tonnes from the current 15 million tonnes, through the expansion, beginning in 2014, of the Abbot Point coal port (pictured).

Located between a salt marsh and a lagoon of the Great Barrier Reef, the planned expansion would mean the new port would exceed by about 40% the volumes being handled by Qinhuangdao port in China, the world’s largest dry-bulk harbour.

There are also plans to dredge more than 112 million cubic metres from the Great Barrier Reef area. The federal government has so far approved the dredging of 52 million cubic metres.

This and the planned expansion of the ports are, however, being opposed by several groups, including the fishing and tourism industries as well as environmental activists.