CTAA - Port of Brisbane Notifications

Monday, July 24, 2023

Port of Brisbane Origin Destination Study

Summary Report 2023

The Port of Brisbane has released its much-anticipated container freight Origin Destination Study Summary Report 2023.

The Report builds on and compares the results of the previous Port of Brisbane OD study conducted a decade ago in 2013.

The Report was prepared by GHD Advisory for the Port of Brisbane Pty. Ltd. CTAA assisted GHD in its extensive stakeholder engagement with container freight stakeholders in QLD to gather significant data input for the Study.

CTAA would like to thank all of the container transport operators and others who cooperated fully with the data collection task. The result is a comprehensive assessment of current movements, patterns and locations where container freight passes through the Port of Brisbane, including its full export origins and full import destinations.

Key Findings:

In FY2021/22, the Port's total container throughput was 1,434,212 containers (TEUs) -
730,302 containers (TEUs), full and empty, were imports & 703,910 containers (TEUs), full and empty, were exports.
Approximately 99% of the import and export containers (full and empty) were transported by road to and from the Port, while less than 1% were transported by rail (rail share has declined from 5% in 2013).
82% of full import containers were "staged" through transport yards before delivery to customer - only 18% of full imports were transported directly to the importer from a stevedore terminal.
87% of full export containers were staged before delivery to the stevedore terminal - only 13% of full exports were transported directly from the export packing location to the stevedore terminal.
The percentage of staging of imports and exports has almost doubled since 2013.This reflects the need to control full containers through the logistics chain to meet the container receival & delivery disciplines at stevedore terminals (i.e. vehicle booking slot and stack run availability / export cut-off times, etc.), and the supply chain management requirements of importers and exporters.
95% of full import containers are unpacked within 100km of the Port. 64% of these were unpacked at the Port of Brisbane or one of 14 Brisbane suburbs within 40km of the Port.

This highlights the urban / metropolitan nature of import container supply chains, as well as the huge importance of the container logistics facilities located at the Port itself on Fisherman Islands, the contiguous industrial areas of Lytton, Hemmant, Murarrie and Cannon Hill, as well as the south-western industrial suburbs of Rocklea, Coopers Plains, Acacia Ridge, Richlands, Wacol, and Carole Park.
51% of full export containers were packed within 100km of the Port. This actually represents a 10% decline since 2013 in the number being packed within 100km of the Port, underlining the trend towards the use of transport yards and third-party packing facilities closer to regional areas, such as Ipswich, the Darling Downs – Maranoa and Toowoomba.

20% of the full export containers were packed in the Port precinct, 28% in Brisbane's suburbs and 29% in regional QLD (located within 250km of the Port). Approx. 5% of export containers originated from interstate, notably from as far afield as Moree, Narrabri and Tamworth in NSW.
There are a greater number of empty exports due to the increase in imports resulting in a larger imbalance between imports and exports.
In relation to heavy vehicle combination use, 36% of containers were transported by A-doubles and B-Doubles; 36% by semi-trailers, 28% by side loaders or A/B-doubles and 2% by Super B-Doubles.The average number of TEUs carried per truck was 1.9 TEUs.

These figures highlight the extensive use of Higer Productivity Freight Vehicles (HPFVs) in QLD to increase container transport logistics productivity, demonstrating good cooperation between the container logistics industry, the Port of Brisbane, the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR), the State Government and local governments to accommodate access and provide necessary transport infrastructure.

Since 2013, there has also been an increase in the use of side-loaders to improve delivery efficiencies and innovation to and from customers.
The movement of import and export containers remain heavily reliant on motorways and major arterial roads in Brisbane and adjacent statistics areas, more notably on corridors such as the:
- Port of Brisbane, Gateway, Logan and Pacific Motorways.
- Bruce and Warrego Highways for regional movements from areas such as Ipswich and Toowoomba.
- The local road network in areas such as Hemmant, Murrarie, Rocklea, Cooper Plains and Acacia Ridge.

Download a copy of the Origin Destination Summary Report 2023

(PDF format) by clicking on the link button below then selecting "Download":

Port of Brisbane Origin Destination Study Summary Report 2023: Click Here to Select Download