SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — GrainCorp announced on May 25 that it is investing approximately A$20 million in improvements to its country network, to improve efficiency and intake speeds for the peak periods of next harvest.

“GrainCorp is strongly committed to continuous improvement of the services we offer our grower

customers,” Group General Manager, Storage and Logistics, Nigel Hart said. “We’ve handled two consecutive big harvests and this substantial investment is in addition to the 1 million tonnes of additional storage we added to our network last year. It is the largest single investment in mobile equipment we have ever made in any one year.”

Hart said a core part of the large investment will be the purchase of more than 20 new generation driveover hoppers/stackers, that would substantially increase the speed and efficiency GrainCorp is able to receive grain, reduce waiting times and streamline deliveries for growers during peak harvest periods.

“We anticipate our investment in these stackers will lift the average daily intake speed across the

GrainCorp network by about 20% during the peak period. This is an acceleration of 50-75,000 tonnes per day. The new equipment can stack at almost double the in-take speed of the majority of the existing machinery in operation, meaning a B-Double truck load could be unloaded in a matter of a few minutes,” Hart said.

The new stackers are more mobile than existing equipment and able to be rapidly broken down and efficiently moved around the network. It is anticipated this feature will allow the machinery to be deployed at a large number of GrainCorp’s key sites during the most intense points of their harvest.

Hart said the A$20 million program of investment also included improvements to in and out-load infrastructure at key sites.

“We are making substantial efforts to streamline and improve the process for growers, even at the most hectic peak times of harvest,” Hart said. “This investment, along with the million tonnes of additional storage we added last year and strong forward program of grain exports means we are confident we will be ready for the forthcoming harvest.”