The Australian Competition Tribunal (ACT) has ruled in favour of the Port of Newcastle in a legal dispute regarding navigation and wharf pricing.
The Tribunal noted that prices should “provide an incentive to a service provider to efficiently (and in a timely fashion) invest in maintaining and improving infrastructure necessary to provide facilities at the Port”.
“Prices that are too low can lead to non-investment or delayed investment, or the non-provision of some infrastructure services,” the Tribunal said.
The Port of Newcastle welcomed the ACT’s decision today about navigation and wharf pricing.
Port of Newcastle’s CEO, Craig Carmody, said it had long held that port pricing should remain subject to an appropriate and efficient commercial relationship between the port and its customers.
“Following on from the Australian Government’s announcement in September regarding the revocation of the declaration of service at the Port of Newcastle, a period of unnecessary uncertainty for all parties has hopefully now been concluded,” Mr Carmody said.
“We look forward to sitting down with all our customers to discuss our services and pricing as part of a return to a normal commercial relationship.”
