The ACCC’s container stevedoring program is undertaken under a direction from the Federal Treasurer under Part VIIA of the Trade Practices Act 1974 to monitor prices, costs and profits of container terminal operator companies at the ports of Adelaide, Brisbane, Burnie, Fremantle, Melbourne and Sydney.
The ACCC releases the monitoring reports annually.
The ninth monitoring report was released on 31 October 2007. It covers the 2006–07 financial year. The report showed that at Australia's largest container terminals, average revenues and costs for stevedoring activities fell, while productivity levels improved. This contrasts with a trend over recent years of rising unit revenues and costs and falling productivity. The pattern of decreasing real unit revenues and costs has continued since the late 1990s, following waterfront reform.
The Productivity Commission has also published research papers into international benchmarking of container stevedoring. See the Productivity Commission website for copies of these research papers.
