ANL, a renowned shipping company with a rich history in Australia and the Oceania region and Australia’s largest rail freight company Aurizon have partnered on a landbridging supply chain solution for Asia Pacific container traffic through the Port of Darwin.
The new service offers customers shipping from Asian Pacific ports to Darwin, with direct rail connection to Adelaide and southern Australian destinations as required.
The integrated shipping-rail solution is available from a range of ports including direct connection from Singapore; and with the use of transshipment, Shanghai, Shekou and Qingdao (China), Port Kelang (Malaysia), Laem Chabang (Thailand), Mundra (India), Busan (Korea) and other Asian and Indian Sub-Continent ports. This service offers an average potential time saving of ten days for freight arriving into Adelaide across these ports.
Every ANL sailing into Darwin since November 2024 has included landbridging containers for the southern states.
ANL’s General Manager Intra Oceania Trades, Lincoln Dundas stated that “ANL is pleased to partner with Aurizon on this new supply chain solution into Australia, we are committed to developing new options or routes for our customers in a mature market, in partnership with industry.
The ocean and rail supply chain provides our customers with optionality and the potential to deliver material time savings, with a reliable and efficient, alternate supply chain.”
Aurizon developed the landbridging solution on the back of the acquisition in 2022 of the 2,200-kilometre Tarcoola to Darwin railway, a large-scale rail haulage business in South Australia and the Northern Territory, and terminal and stevedoring assets at the Port of Darwin.
“Aurizon saw an opportunity to offer another service – an alternate supply chain for shippers and freight customers – in addition to the existing business that was already operating on this rail corridor,’ said Gareth Long, Aurizon’s Group Executive Containerised Freight.
“This leverages the existing assets of efficient track infrastructure and double-stacked container freight trains, integrated with Aurizon’s port and terminal facilities in Darwin.’
“Aurizon is delighted to establish a regular schedule service with global shipping line ANL into Darwin, and we see strong opportunities to grow volumes as we demonstrate to customers the benefits of the ocean and rail service.”