Broomehill and Moora CBH bins to get rapid rail outloading facilities in 2023

Broomehill and Moora will be the first of 11 CBH grain bins to be upgraded with rapid rail outloading facilities and siding extensions, with works set to begin early next year. Australia’s biggest grain handler on Friday revealed plans for how it will spend $4 billion over the next decade to improve its network infrastructure and assets across WA’s grain on rail network. It is part of CBH Group’s strategy to reach a monthly export capacity of three million tonnes by 2033 or sooner by expanding and improving receival, storage and outloading infrastructure. The works at Broomehill and Moora are among a slew of projects listed as planned for the 2022-23 financial year. “We are currently working through the approvals process for four of the most advanced projects at Brookton, Broomehill, Moora and Cranbrook, and are working towards starting construction on at least two of these rapid rail outloading facilities in early 2023,” a CBH spokesman told Countryman. “Improving the outloading capabilities of Western Australia’s grain supply chain is a major focus for CBH, and we are pleased to invest alongside the State and Federal Governments in the 11 rail siding projects through the ASCI (WA Agricultural Supply Chain Initiative) program. “The rail siding projects adjoin rail loading facilities, which will enable longer trains to be loaded faster and get to port more efficiently.” The rail siding projects are planned for CBH’s 11 busiest grain bins, with the first four announced ahead of last year’s State budget as a $22m State Government spend. In May, WA Transport Minister Rita Saffioti announced a further $46m would be used for seven similar projects at CBH’s grain receival sites at Avon, Kellerberrin, Dowerin, Konnongorring, Ballidu, Mingenew and Perenjori North. It is part of the biggest upgrade of WA’s grain on rail network in more than a decade, with CBH Group pledging to match $200m of State and Federal investment. CBH chief operations officer Mick Daw said last year’s record 24.3Mt crop — of which CBH received 21.3Mt — reinforced the need for the co-operative to continue with increased investment in the network. He said outloading projects were particularly critical in generating price value for growers in the first half of the year. “As the crop size continues to grow, we must invest more to improve our ability to receive the harvest efficiently, sustain current assets, and build infrastructure to increase the tonnes to customer capability of the network,” Mr Daw said. “Over the last five years, CBH has invested more than $1.2b in the network, and we are pleased to commit to investing $4b over the next 10 years. “Increasing the capacity of our network is critical to maximising the value of growers’ grain in international markets, and sustainably creating value for WA growers, both current and future.” Other 2023 projects include site expansions, accommodation and throughput enhancements, storage refurbishments and temporary storage builds. CBH has added 5Mt of permanent and temporary storage to the network in the past two years. Chief project delivery officer Sam Gliddon said temporary storage played a major role in last year’s harvest and would continue to be an important part of the network infrastructure mix. “If we look at how much temporary storage has been added to and planned for the network over the past two years, CBH will have increased its entire network storage capacity by over 20 per cent in just 12 months,” he said. “This is a phenomenal effort, and much-needed across all zones. “Our strategy includes converting many of these temporary storages to permanent specifications in the future.” In a statement, CBH said rail investment would be “a significant feature of network investment moving forward”, with the co-operative in the process of buying new rail rolling stock, and improving supply chain capacity in the Kwinana Zone by progressing work on the Avon narrow-gauge/standard-gauge transfer facility. Commercial negotiations were currently underway to acquire standard gauge locomotives. The $10b spend equates to $350-450m each year — a significant increase on the $240m annual average CBH spent on network investment over the past five years. The most CBH has ever spent on network investment in a single year was $285.3m in 2018-19. CBH planned projects commencing FY23 Albany Zone: Esperance Zone: Geraldton Zone: