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"The average spend for logistics on a project is 3 - 5%. For a $10 Billion project, that equals to $300 - $500 Million. If we can save 10% on costs that equals $30 - $50 Million." Col opened up his presentation with. At that stage, your Editor (and I think most of his audience) still hadn't quite clicked on the enormous magnitude of the project. Until his next point: There really are 3 projects, not just one: The Carmichael Mine, the expansion of the Abbot Point Terminal and the rail line from the mine to Abbot Point. Col briefly elaborated on why Mackay is the ideal entry port for the rail construction: not just the shortest distance to the mine site as well as to Abbot Point, but the port has already the infrastructure and experience to handle the type of materials required.
Still a bit foggy on the size of the project? Well, just look at the rail project alone: 800 Km of tracks require 48,000 tonnes of rail, 198,000 tonnes of sleepers, plus bridges, signalling, rail clips, ballast material, estimated to total 988,000 tonnes of material. And how will they transport this? Road trains with 4 side tippers can handle 315 tonnes at a time. That therefore will require 3,136 trips. What about distances? Well, Brisbane to Sydney is 921 Km. Brisbane to the Carmichael site is 1237 Km! Even from Abbot Point, it is 457 Km. And it is not all flat either: If you drive out there, you'll come across flood signs: not 1 metre - 3 metres! And one needs to consider just how to get the equipment required out there: The Burdekin Bridge has a maximum dimension of 6.1 m high and 7.41 m wide. Problem is that some of the gear is 10 metres wide.
And so it goes on... Adani will have an airport for fly-in/fly-out workers. 12 Km away, there will be a village with 2, 000 beds for construction workers... traffic management: 1 truck arriving for unloading every 9 minutes. We have not yet started to discuss projected peak fuel requirement of some 300 million litres...
And just how would Col Laurenson know about all this? Well, that was his job at Adani. One never ceases to be amazed at the Rotarians one meets at Surfers Sunrise. Col's PowerPoint is uploaded - see Download Section on the right - 2 files.