Bell Bay Aluminium awaits government support for new freight route

Bell Bay Aluminium, like other exporters, seeks new international freight shipping service from Bell Bay but the company will have to wait at least until August to see if they have government support for the initiative.

A spokesman for state Infrastructure Minister David O'Byrne said that long-awaited consultants' reports on Bass Strait freight would go first to the government-appointed Freight Logistics Co-ordination Team for review.

A Bell Bay industry group of exporters was set up to respond to the crisis after they were forced to re-direct their goods out of Tasmania via North-West ports at considerable extra cost.

Bell Bay Aluminium negotiated with Swire Shipping earlier this year to collect some freight from the Bell Bay port on a short-term contract to help offset the loss of the international container service.

Bell Bay Industry Group spokesman Bob Gozzi said that the Swire service had operated monthly since Easter and was working well for several other exporters as well.

“It also has capacity to take some containers on deck and has been moving about 500 containers a visit,” added Mr Gozzi.

He said there had been discussions with Swire about a new, regular container freight service from Bell Bay to Hong Kong and Shanghai.

His group was keen to discuss this option with the state government to determine its support for such a service in its introductory stage, but had to wait until after the conclusion of the Freight Logistics Co-ordination team review, he said.

Bell Bay Aluminium general manager Ray Mostogl said that the direct, multi-purpose Swire Shipping service was making a considerable commercial difference to the business.

“Our ultimate goal is still a direct international vessel for all our freight,” Mr Mostogl said.