Grain Trade Australia (GTA) says the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) latest container stevedoring findings confirm long-standing market concerns raised by grain exporters about escalating and largely incontestable landside charges at Australia’s container ports.

The ACCC’s Container Stevedoring Monitoring Report 2024–25 confirms stevedores are charging the highest real price per container in the 27 years of ACCC monitoring, with operating profits reaching a record $808.6 million and profit margins climbing to 34.8 per cent in 2024–25. This is despite stable costs, productivity and significant spare capacity at terminals.

The ACCC’s data shows landside charges have become the dominant driver of stevedore profitability. In 2024–25, landside charges accounted for 49.5 per cent of stevedore revenue, including $642 million from Terminal Access Charges (TACs). More than $3 billion has been collected in TACs since 2017–18 – around 2.5 times total capital investment over the same period.

GTA’s CEO Pat O’Shannassy said the findings closely align with the experience of containerised grain exporters.

“It is encouraging to see the ACCC acknowledge the scale and incontestability of landside charges and access fees, including those imposed by Empty Container Parks, which our members have been raising for some time,” Pat said.

While GTA supports continued scrutiny of the sector, it cautions against prescriptive approaches that do not reflect commercial realities. “Any response needs to recognise the highly dynamic nature of global trade. Rigid pricing mechanisms, including formal annualised price setting, often embed excessive risk premiums into fees,” Pat O’Shannassy continues.

“From GTA’s perspective, fees and charges, including landside fees, should in principle align with commercial contracting arrangements across the supply chain, ensuring those who pay the fees can negotiate service productivity. This is currently not the case with grain container exporters. In our view, exporters should be able to contract directly with shipping lines for services, and shipping lines should then negotiate and contract landside services with stevedores and container parks, as they can apply commercial and operational pressure to ensure efficiency.

Pricing should be determined through negotiation by parties who can influence service levels and productivity outcomes, rather than being imposed as non-contestable costs on exporters. This will lead to a more efficient and productive sector.”

Containerised grain exports play an important role alongside bulk shipments. If high fees and poor productivity make container pathways uneconomic, the consequence will mean reduced competition and innovation in the grain export supply chain, with potential flow-on impacts for growers.

The GTA CEO said, “We are calling on Government and industry stakeholders to consider this proposed reform.”

GTA will continue to engage with regulators and industry stakeholders on measures that improve contestability and efficiency across Australia’s container freight supply chain.

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Media Contact:
Pat O’Shannassy
CEO, Grain Trade Australia
M: +61 427 881 113
E: pat.oshannassy@graintrade.org.au