“Port Botany is this state’s premier container port and the Port Botany Container Terminal Expansion will double the handling capacity at the current port to meet the projected long-term trade growth for Sydney and NSW,” said NSW ports minister Duncan Gay. “We expect that the implementation of the third container terminal will create 9,000 new jobs and boost the State’s economy by AU$16 billion (US$17.5 billion) over the next twenty years.”
“HPH will equip the terminal with the latest technology and modern facilities in preparation for the opening in 2013,” said Raymond Law of HPH. “Australia’s growing trade with Asia makes it a major market for HPH, and the port will play an important role in facilitating that trade.”
The Port Botany Expansion project has established five new shipping berths along a new 1.85-kilometre wharf, created dedicated road and rail access to the port and rehabilitated the estuarine environment in Botany Bay. The chairman of Sydney Ports Corporation, Bryan Smith, said the third terminal would increase competition in the sector with the two existing stevedores at Port Botany. Mr Smith added that the project had passed its first two annual compulsory environmental audits, exceeding all compliance requirements and winning an unqualified endorsement for a raft of environmental management initiatives.