“Last week the Queensland Government and Central Highlands Council announced funding for the construction of a rail siding and road infrastructure at CQIP,” said Brad Foster, regional manager for Queensland. “This new site will have six bunkers and a 1,000 tonnes per hour rail loading facility. The facility will deliver at least a A$5 per tonne rail saving benefit to Queensland growers from a 25% reduction in train cycle time to Gladstone port terminal. It will secure at least 100,000 tonnes per year on rail from local roads.”
The new silo will be GrainCorp’s flagship site in Queensland.
“We would also like to thank AgForce, who have been a strong supporter of Project Regeneration and the benefits it will deliver to Queensland growers,” Foster said. “We look forward to continue working with them to improve the competitiveness of Queensland grain.”
Construction is expected to take around 18 months.
This new silo is the latest in a series of projects for GrainCorp.
In May, GrainCorp confirmed the A$8.1 million upgrade to its grain terminal site in Cunningar is on track after passing the 25% completion mark. The project started in mid-February and is jointly funded by the Australian Government, local community, Hilltops Council and GrainCorp.
In late 2016, GrainCorp partnered with the Australian New South Wales (NSW) government to deliver a A$4.7 million upgrade to a major grain handling facility in Burren Junction, northern NSW. The completed site rail loading times will be reduced by 70% as a result of the upgrade, which will deliver faster cycle times to port with a freight saving of over A$6 per tonne, GrainCorp said.
GrainCorp’s Tocumwal site also was relaunched as part of the company’s regeneration project. The A$3 million upgrade included the extension of the rail siding from a 10-wagon, 150-meter siding to a full 40-wagon unit train (640-meter) siding. The traffic flow of the site also was substantially redesigned – improving turnaround times. The site has a 120,000 tonne capacity.
