Hectic grain export program to continue

WA leads the charge, with between 1.6 and 1.7mt scheduled for shipment this month from Geraldton, Kwinana, Albany and Esperance ports after CBH alone processed almost 1.9mt in January.

This is the biggest grain shipment on record for CBH, with the previous record set in 2014 with 1.66mt.

Last month, the Kwinana port broke its monthly record, shipping 740,000t. The Esperance port also broke its previous 330,000t record by shipping 422,000t in January.

It has been a big year for CBH and WA growers as total grain delivered to CBH reached 16.62mt, beating the previous record of 15.86mt set during the 2013-14 harvest.

General manager of operations David Capper said it had been a busy harvest with the volume of grain exceeding expectations.

"We were unsure of what to expect heading into harvest following widespread frosts in August and September," he said.

"Some growers have suffered significant losses from the frosts while other areas of the State enjoyed incredible yields.

"Overall, it resulted in a 22 per cent increase in the total tonnes received compared to last harvest."

Mr Capper said the next challenge was moving the significant amount of grain received through the network into the global market.

He said the State's grain rail and road network would be at peak capacity for the first half of the year as CBH moved grain to port.

CBH operations logistics manager Ben Raisbeck said the shorter calendar month meant a smaller amount would be shipped in February however the heavy rains and flooding across the Kwinana and Albany zones would also affect shipments.

"Kwinana and Albany are the most severely impacted, however in the Kwinana zone the rail network will be up and running by mid week,'' he said.

"We are still moving small amounts of grain to the port but the rain has limited our ability to do that."

Mr Raisbeck said the grain was heading to various destinations, including Indonesia, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

"They are probably our three biggest markets - South East Asia, North Asia which includes China, Japan, Vietnam and Thailand, and the Middle East," he said.

Mr Raisbeck said canola and barley were generally moved first, and most shipments were now wheat of various grades.

"At the start of the season we tend to see more canola and barley being shipped with big volumes of wheat as well, but then we draw down on barley and canola and then more towards shipping wheat," he said.

"We are shipping at higher volume - there's a couple of reasons for this as the demand for Australian grain is really strong and our logistics and supply chain is working really efficiently to get that grain to port."

While the sheer volumes will stretch national port and upcountry transport logistics close to breaking point, early indications are the program is progressing smoothly.

"Things are moving pretty well, it is busy wherever you look," said Emerald Grain chief executive David Johnson.

He said road and rail logistics were key to ensuring the maximum tonnage of grain was moved.

"Exactly how much grain we can get onto the water will come down to how efficiently upcountry road and rail networks operate," Mr Johnson said.

He said it was understandable this year's big harvest was stretching supply chain infrastructure.

"If there was enough capacity to do this record season easily than in other years, we would have massive under-utilisation of the network in other years with more normal production," Mr Johnson said.

Newcastle Agri Terminal executive director Jock Carter said his facility was booked until the end of October.

He was hoping to move 900,000 tonnes in the 12 months from November, which would be a record.

It is a similar story in South Australia with Viterra general manager of operations Tim Krause saying shipping capacity was fully booked for the next few months.

Viterra had a record January with 814,000t shipped out last month, with 360,000t of this coming out of the company's two Adelaide ports, which was also a record.