Darwin Port Corporation (PDC)
Darwin Port Corporation has announced a fixed berthage charge of $2000 per call (ex GST) as part of tariff changes effective February 2015.
The Northern Territory government has also approved a 15% increase to the daily berthage tariff from the current $0.25 to $0.29 per GRT per day (ex GST), and a 30% increase in wharfage rates for general cargo, livestock and containerised cargo.
The new tariffs will apply to vessels berthing and loading cargo at East Arm, Fort Hill and Stokes Hill wharves. The changes follow a financial performance review by the NT government which revealed DPC is “substantially under recovering” operating costs and “does not generate an acceptable return” on assets.
DPC’s chief Terry O'Conner told Lloyd’s List Australia that despite the port reporting record profits for the past couple of years, the reality is that those profits have not given the port a return on its assets.
“In some cases the assets have been underachieving.
“So what we need to do is bring those assets up and start recovering.
“The expectation is that we will start to recover against those assets fairly quickly with the new pricing structure,” Mr O'Conner said.
The assets in question encompass port development, wharves, infrastructure, roads and land reclamation.
Mr O'Conner said the fixed charge is a transition from when the port charged the oil and gas industry $1500 a day for berthage.
“I believe this pricing structure will give us a return on the assets that we have got here now,” he said.
“We would know within six to 12 months.”
