In an Australian Mining roundtable covered in the December issue logistics experts unanimously agreed that coal stakeholders must move on from the blame game and collaborate to solve the complex challenges constraining the coal supply.
Roundtable delegates included AustCoal Consulting Alliance alliance convenor Bede Boyle, Australian Institute of Export Ian Murray, Australian Rail Track Corporation general manager operations and customer service Denise McMillan, Queensland Resources Council director industry policy Andrew Barger, Minerals Council of Australia senior director economics policy Peter Morris, and Queensland Rail general manager sales and customer service Neil Buckley.
Delegates also agreed that State and Federal Governments should back off and leave the industry to sort out capacity constraints.
“The last thing that we need is a government trying to create rules around what we are doing,” McMillan said.
“We would look to the New South Wales Government to expedite development approval,” Boyle added.
Roundtable delegates said the Hunter Valley Coal Chain Logistics Team (HVCCLT) was a worthy initiative to bring stakeholders together, but more collaboration was needed to solve the complexity of issues affecting the chain — much of which is often misunderstood.
“There are so many different people that have a hand in the outcomes achieved by the time the coal gets to ship,” McMillan said.
For this reason, delegates agreed that stakeholders must come together to openly discuss all of the issues that contribute to capacity constraints.
Collaboration in Queensland and New South Wales, says Boyle, must reach another level.
“The day that the chain is managed as if it was one entity is when the real benefits are going to flow,” he said.