WESTPORT — WESTERN AUSTRALIA'S CONTAINER PORT STRATEGY

The brief. The Westport Taskforce was established to determine how Western Australia should meet its growing freight demand for the next fifty years and beyond, across port, road and rail infrastructure. Black Quay were strategic advisors to both the Westport Taskforce and to WA Treasury.

The challenge. The question was not how to expand a port but whether the state should have one container port or several, and where. Answering it required commercial viability analysis of every shortlisted option, international benchmarking, and a view on coastal shipping that had not previously been tested.

Separately, the container fleet forecast underpinning it had to be built from first principles rather than extrapolated. Because vessel deployment to Western Australia depends on what happens at every other Australian port, that required assessing the capacity and strategic position of all of them.

What we did. We led the study into the commercial viability of all shortlisted container port options, and tested single-port against multi-port scenarios for competitiveness and commercial viability. That involved international port benchmarking, detailed commercial analysis, coastal shipping strategy assessment, market orientation and supply chain studies, competition performance comparison across development options, layout planning advice, cost analysis and optioneering.

We were then commissioned to deliver the long-term container fleet forecast for the state, one of the most detailed Australasian fleet forecasts produced, built on first-principles analysis of industry trends and drivers, covering international container shipping, coastal shipping potential and outline bulk shipping potential at Kwinana. Producing it required assessing the capacity and strategic impact of every primary Australian port.

Work has continued across multiple further commissions, including detailed planning assessment of Fremantle, joint delivery of all commercial and cost analysis for the proposed Westport development, and review and advice on the planning options put forward.

The outcome. We became a trusted adviser both to Westport and to Treasury, and have been re-engaged repeatedly across the programme's phases.

 

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