The Adelaide launch of Free Eyre's Peninsula Ports project was held on Tuesday evening, where the benefits and economics of the project were outlined to about 30 farmers, agribusiness industry members and shareholders.
The proposed facility is set to be built at Port Spencer and have a development cost between $180 million and $200m and hopes to attract up to 1m tonnes of grain throughput a year from the 2.5mt produced on the EP.
Free Eyre chairman John Crosby said the company's shareholders would benefit from the new port.
"We have 472 shareholders, and of the 2.6m tonnes of grain produced on the Eyre Peninsula, they produce just under 2m tonnes. Those guys will get a freight advantage, somewhere between $0 and $10 a tonne, they'll also get a reduction in handling fees, and on top of that, they will get a dividend," he said.
He said while the port was proposed as being specifically for grain shipments the future of the port remained open.
RELATED READING:
"It is a grain-only port, but it doesn't mean we won't under any circumstances do anything else," he said.
"It just means all the numbers have been calculated on grain only, and we can make it pay on grain only."
Port construction is expected to commence in March and will hopefully be completed for wet testing in July 2021.
Stock Journal's CLAIRE HARRIS went along to the meeting and took these photographs.
- Start the day with all the big news in agriculture. Click here to sign up to receive our daily Stock Journal newsletter.
