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Posted by Dale Crisp
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4, July, 2025
CTAA’s Neil Chambers said there seemed to be a fundamental misunderstanding by the ACCC of how the container chain really works.
The conclusion of the ACCC is that DP World Australia is “unlikely to engage in forms of discriminatory conduct which would lead to material operational delays and disruption at DP World’s Terminals.”
“We’d suggest that the above is a statement of the self-evident - neither DP World nor container transport operators want to experience operational delays and disruption caused by any operational behaviours.
“What’s interesting however is the subsequent statements that “while DP World Australia may have the ability to engage in some subtle forms of discrimination, such as providing Silk will priority access to booking slots or deprioritising access or service levels for Silk’s rivals, DP World Australia’s incentive to engage in discriminatory conduct is limited due to the impact of such conduct on terminal efficiency.”
“CTAA interprets that statement and other statements in the decision to mean that DP World Australia may engage in preferential Terminal access treatment for Silk transport assets, such as favourable VBS slot treatment and other access preferences, but even if they do, the ACCC is of the view that “it is unlikely to reach a level so as to substantially lessen competition.”
“The ACCC’s statement seems to suggest that DP World’s National Terminal Carrier Access Terms and Conditions may not necessarily be applied to Silk’s transport assets in the same manner as for other carriers after the acquisition and vertical integration of the Silk’s operations into DP World Australia.
“It is really hoped that this is not the case,” Mr Chambers said. “We await any further advice from the ACCC on its decision to not impose any enforceable conditions on the acquisition, or any statements from DP World Australia about its future operational intentions post the acquisition.
“The ACCC’s decision seems to belie the reality that any preferential Terminal access could be used as a commercial tool to differentiate landside pricing and service levels beyond the Terminal gate.
“Preferential terminal access treatment may provide a commercial advantage in the provision of container road transport services without impacting on Terminal efficiency but may very much impact on the ability of other road transport operators to compete on price and service levels for landside logistics operations,” CTAA said.
DPWA had not responded to an invitation to comment on the ACCC’s decision at time of writing.