ANOTHER RECORD: CBH Group smashes monthly shipping record with 2Mt exported in December, up 15 per cent

WA’s harvest records continue to tumble with grain handling and marketing juggernaut CBH Group shipping more than 2 million tonnes of grain in December, a major achievement as it edges towards its goal of shipping 3 million per month by 2033. It was one of two records CBH Group broke that month, when it also smashed its rail record for the six month in a row. A whopping one million tonnes of rail was moved from CBH’s up-country receival sites to port in December. The two achievements come as WA grain growers line up to harvest their second-biggest crop in a row, with the 2022-23 harvest expected to reach 24.7Mt, up on last year’s unbelievable 24.3Mt harvest. CBH chief operations officer Mick Daw said the 2.18Mt record was a collective total achieved from four ports and grain terminals the farmer co-operative owns at Geraldton, Kwinana, Albany and Esperance. The achievement smashes the prior record of 1.89Mt set in January 2017 by 15 per cent. CBH is inching closer but still has some way to go before reaching its 2033 goal of being able to ship 3Mt to global markets per month. As part of that, it wants to be able to export 2Mt per month by 2024. In handing down CBH’s annual report in December, CBH chief executive Ben Macnamara said CBH’s current capacity was about 1.6Mt shipping and while the company had done numbers “in excess” of that, it was focused on achieving it “sustainably”. Mr Daw paid tribute to CBH’s logistics and frontline operations teams, transporters and WA growers, particularly given the record harvest, the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 on global supply chains and CBH Group’s transition to a new rail provider last year. “To export the most in the co-operative’s history, after two record crops and elevated worldwide demand, is an outstanding effort and a testament to the network and supply chain, and the hardworking team behind it,” Mr Daw said. Shipping records were achieved at two ports, with all four used to export grain sold by CBH and more than a dozen other traders. The Kwinana Grain Terminal achieved a new all-time monthly record, with more than 914,000 tonnes exported in December, smashing the prior record of 769,303 tonnes set in January 2019. The Geraldton Grain Terminal also achieved a new all-time monthly record, exporting 483,530 tonnes that same month. That was up on the previous record of 422,280 tonnes set in November 2021. Mr Daw said shipping records had been set each month for the first three months of the shipping year, which started on October 1. “We are well positioned for 2023,” he said. “This is further proof that our supply chain is not broken and in fact continues to improve as we introduce initiatives and measures to optimise our outloading, road, rail and shipping performance. “In addition to the rolling, six consecutive months of breaking rail records, the whole 2022 calendar year was a record for rail performance, delivering 9.85 million tonnes, the most tonnes in a 12-month period ever.” Mr Daw thanked CBH Group’s new rail provider Aurizon, which took on the mammoth task of handling WA’s lucrative grain-on-rail contract just weeks before last year’s record 23.4Mt harvest. The move came after CBH severed ties with its long-standing rail provider Watco three months before their contract expired. “Congratulations to our rail service provider Aurizon for the improved rail performance, which has seen rail continue to break monthly records consecutively from July to December,” he said. “This is a fantastic achievement and I’d like to thank the whole CBH team, especially our frontline and logistics employees, for their hard work and commitment to moving a record crop to our international customers and delivering value for WA growers.” All of the trains carting grain from CBH’s up-country sites to port are now being driven by Aurizon in a deal flagged to boost WA’s grain-on-rail capacity by 30 per cent. This includes all 10 fleets of CBH-owned and branded trains, which includes 28 locomotives and 574 wagons it purchased in 2011. The record-breaking December logistics performance coincided with CBH receiving 20 million tonnes into the network on December 29, 2022. In addition to logistics records, over 54 sites across the network have broken daily receival records and 34 sites have received the most tonnes on record during this harvest.