Trade Minister Craig Emerson says Indonesia's entry into a regional trade group will benefit Australian exporters.

Indonesia joined the ASEAN-Australian-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA) on January 10.

Under the agreement, Australia's share of exports entering the Indonesian nation tariff-free is expected to rise to 80 per cent, from 56 per cent, and then to 92 per cent by 2015.

Another five per cent of Australian exports will have tariffs of no more than five per cent.

Around 99 per cent of Indonesian exports to Australia would be free of tariffs from Tuesday and this would rise to 100 per cent when the agreement was fully implemented.

The trade agreement covered goods, services, investment and intellectual property.

Indonesia is Australia's 11th largest export market, with the Asian nation buying $2.48 billion of Australian goods in the five months to November 30.

Source: AAP  10.1.12

Italian National Hauliers Strike Week 4, January, 2012.

The major Union representing Italian National Hauliers went on strike for a week from 23 to 27 January 2012.

The strike is supported by the difficulties that transport companies presently face in view of new economic restrictions  imposed by the Italian government which include:

- severe increase of motorways toll as from 1st Jan 2012.
- severe increase of petrol products: gasoline at euro 1,80 per litre
  totalling 17% increase as from  1st Jan 2011 to 1st Jan 2012.
- no respect of the minimum tariff imposed by law to avoid unfair competition .

This strike will obviously impact on the shipping industry however the problem is set to expand into neighbouring countries as austerity measures bite into industries and livelihoods.

Second Sydney airport vital but unlikely. 

Federal Transport Minister Anthony Albanese says there's an urgent need for a second Sydney airport, but he remains pessimistic it will ever become a reality.

The issue of a second Sydney airport has been debated for decades, but Labor and coalition governments have failed to progress it because of a feared backlash from voters near proposed sites who hold a `not in my back yard' viewpoint.

 

The Howard government in 2000 abandoned plans to build an airport at Badgerys Creek and the NSW coalition government continues to oppose a second facility.

  

Albanese said analysis by his department showed a failure to add aviation capacity in Sydney would lead to a $35 billion a year hit to the NSW economy and cost the state around 70,000 jobs.

 

Albanese said China was currently building dozens of airports and if Australia wanted to benefit from this it needed to act quickly to build capacity.

 

Source: AAP NewsWire 27.1.12

Thiess wins $260 million joint port contract

Leighton Holdings subsidiary Thiess and a Belgian company have jointly won a $260 million contract to develop a port in north Western Australia.

Thiess and Belgian company BESIX SA will design and develop a breakwater and materials offloading facility as part of the Chevron-operated Wheatstone liquefied natural gas project (LNG).

The majority of the new work would be based in Onslow, in the north of WA, and 80 per cent of the work under the contract would take place in Australia, Leighton said in a statement.

Work on the project is due to commence later this year.

Container milestone for Melbourne

Container trade through the Port of Melbourne reached a milestone in 2011, passing through the 2.5 million container mark to record a throughput of 2,506,726TEUs in the full calendar year, up 6.6 percent on the 2010 result.

The full 2011 calendar year container volume was boosted by strong trade in December of 221,128TEUs, up 6.2 percent on the same month last year. In terms of the financial year to date ending 31 December, total container volumes have increased 9.2 percent. Full container imports and exports increased 9.8 percent and 12.9 percent respectively over this period.

Dry bulk trade increased 19.5 percent for the financial year to date while liquid bulk trade also increased 25.7 percent. Overall, breakbulk cargo also increased 9.7 percent for the financial year to date while new motor vehicle trade remained below last year’s levels to be down 9.4 percent.

Port Licence Fee – Port of Melbourne

On December 6, 2011 The Victorian Government introduced the Port of Melbourne Corporation Licence Fee bill into Parliament.  The Bill proposes that PoMC be required to pay an annual Port Licence Fee (PLF) to the Victorian Government at a starting rate of $75 million in 2012-13 which will be increased annually by CPI. 

This will impact on the PoMC pricing structure from 1st July, 2012. The PLF replaces the Freight Infrastructure Charge announced by the previous Government in 2008 and will apply to all changes currently levied. 

 

 

 

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