Government-owned ports authority TasPorts has revealed plans to buy Gunns’ Burnie port facility. Chairman Dan Norton said the board was in the process of acquiring the facility before Gunns went into the receivership. Source: ABC News
He said the business sees a competitive advantage in acquiring it.
“When it goes to market, we will put a bid on it,” he said.
Dr Norton also revealed the company wanted to buy Gunns’ Triabunna woodchip mill but refrained from bidding because an industry consortium was interested.
TasPorts said it received no income from its Triabunna port last financial year.
The mothballed woodchip mill at the port is yet to reopen. Dr Norton told the hearing the lease with the mill’s owner, Triabunna Investments, only allows rent to be collected if exports are made.
He was forced to defend the lease arrangement, saying it was signed to enable the reopening of the mill.
“Indication was that it was just going to hold up the potential move to seek an operator which they said they were going to do,” he said. “We’d like to have acquired it. We didn’t put in a bid for it…at the time because the industry had put in a bid and we certainly didn’t want to be cutting across them at all.”
TasPorts recorded an operating loss of $5.5 million and will not return a dividend to the state. It cites a $2 million tonne drop in freight volumes for the loss, driven by the continuing decline in forestry exports and the end of container shipping from Bell Bay.
