Field bins empty grain into a truck on its way to a CBH site. Photo: CBH Group

WESTERN Australia’s CBH Group has set two new logistical records, shipping more than 2 million tonnes (Mt) of grain and moving more than 1Mt by rail in a monthly period.

In December 2022, CBH shipped a total of 2.18Mt in total from its Geraldton, Kwinana, Albany and Esperance ports to surpass the previous record of 1.89Mt set in January 2017 by 15pc.

This harvest, CBH has shipped a total of 4.9Mt between October and December 2022, a 57pc increase on last year’s harvest shipping, which saw 3.12Mt shipped during the same period in 2021.

On an individual port basis, the Kwinana Grain Terminal achieved a new all-time monthly record, exporting 914,264t in December, beating the previous record of 769,303t set in January 2019.

The Geraldton Grain Terminal also achieved a new all-time monthly record, exporting 483,530t in December, beating the previous record of 422,280t set in the previous month.

On rail, CBH moved over 1Mt of grain in December, continuing the improved performance and extending rail’s record-breaking streak to a sixth consecutive month.

CBH chief operations officer Mick Daw said it was an incredible achievement by CBH’s logistics and frontline operations teams, transporters and WA growers, particularly given the record harvest, ongoing impacts of COVID and Aurizon’s transition.

“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.

“The first three months of the shipping year have all been monthly records and we are well positioned for 2023.

“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 9.85Mt, the most tonnes in a 12-month period ever.

The record-breaking December logistics performance coincided with CBH receiving 20Mt into the network on 29 December 2022.

In addition to logistics records, more than 50 sites across the network have broken daily receival records and 34 sites have received the most tonnes on record during this harvest.

Source: CBH Group