ASX-LISTED logistics company Qube has generated $337.5 million in revenue from its grain-trading business for the half year to December 31.

This represented total traded volumes of 648,000 tonnes for the period, comprising around 76,000t of containerised grain, and the balance in bulk.

Qube’s grain assets are primarily in New South Wales, and include the Newcastle Agri Terminal at the Port of Newcastle, and the Quattro terminal at Port Kembla,  as well as several up-country facilities.

Qube got into grain trading in January 2024 with the aim of better utilising its rail and bulk-handling infrastructure.

Its up-country receivals grew by around 240 percent from the HY24 figure to 420,000t in HY25, while bulk grain railed increased by 104pc to almost 450,000t.

Bulk exports through Qube’s grain terminals increased by 85pc to 1.2 million tonnes in HY25, with the company estimating this represented around 61pc of total NSW volumes in the period.

Qube managing director Paul Digney said the grain-trading business was a “real big highlight” of HY25.

“The team have done a great job to build up our trading capability from scratch here to make the business more efficient and to better utilise the assets,” Mr Digney said during the investor webinar last week.

“The results speak for themselves.

“Qube was the largest exporter of grain out of NSW in the first half of the full year 2025 which (is a) pretty remarkable outcome.”

Mr Digney said the company was pleased with the strong grain volumes exported out of its two terminals during the half, and expects to “do a larger volume than that in the second half”.

Group earnings results

Across the group, Qube reported earnings before interest, taxes and amortisation of $178.8 million, up 14pc on HY24, and net profit after tax off $135.3M, a slight increase of 0.4pc on the prior corresponding period.

Mr Digney said Qube’s performance in HY25 reflected continued organic growth across Qube’s key markets, and the contribution of recent acquisitions, and demonstrated the importance of diversification.

“This is a very pleasing first-half performance, with our results slightly ahead of expectations, despite the multiple headwinds we confronted.

“Our first-half performance again shows our ability to leverage our diversity and use the multiple growth levers at our disposal to navigate headwinds and more than offset earnings impacts from issues that might arise in any one operation or market.

“That’s evident across the business, where pockets of disruption in some of our key markets or operations during the period, including industrial action at some of our ports, were able to be offset elsewhere, underscoring the resilience of the business.”

Overall, conditions and activity levels remained favourable across most of Qube’s markets during the period; however, forecast earnings were impacted by factors including the delayed completion of the Melbourne International RoRo Automotive Terminal (MIRRAT), industrial action in some areas, lower volumes from some bulk customers due to mine closures and losses attributable to the Moorebank Logistics Park Interstate Rail Terminal joint venture.