MINING company Glencore appears to have won its long battle with the company owning the privatised Port of Newcastle after the High Court declined the port’s application for it to intervene in their dispute.
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The dispute between the two began months after the port was privatised in 2014 for $1.75 billion when the port operator announced new higher shipping charges estimated to bring in an extra $20 million a year.
Glencore – one of the port’s biggest customers – objected, triggering a convoluted legal process that the Port of Newcastle’s chief executive, Geoff Crowe, said on Monday had now come to an end.
Mr Crowe said that although the legal challenge was over, the port and Glencore were still engaged in a mediation process overseen by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
He said regardless of how fees and charges were set, the port wanted to grow and to diversify while still looking after its main customer, the coal trade.
A spokesperson for Glencore welcomed the High Court decision, saying it upheld earlier court and tribunal decisions to have the shipping channel in the Port of Newcastle “a declared asset”.
“This is good news for all NSW coal exporters as it helps maintain our industry’s international competitiveness and justifies Glencore’s determination to ensure that monopoly export infrastructure is subject to appropriate regulatory constraint,” the company said.
A spokesperson for the ACCC said it continued to arbitrate the “access dispute notified by Glencore” in November 2016 over access to the Port of Newcastle and would make a determination unless both parties agreed otherwise. It has previously said it does not usually comment publicly during the arbitration process.
As the Newcastle Herald has previously reported, Glencore lost an early round of the dispute when the federal government accepted a decision by the National Competition Council that went in favour of the port.
Glencore then took the dispute to a higher body, the Australian Competition Tribunal, which found in Glencore’s favour. This decision was then upheld in the Federal Court.
The Port of Newcastle then applied to the High Court to hear an appeal against the Federal Court decision, but the court announced on Friday that it had rejected the application, with costs awarded against Glencore.
Ian Kirkwood
Reporting journalist at the Newcastle Herald since 1987. Editorial writer, general reporter, industrial relations, industry and coal.
Reporting journalist at the Newcastle Herald since 1987. Editorial writer, general reporter, industrial relations, industry and coal.
