Port of Townsville Limited and Far North Queensland Ports Corporation (the Applicants) are proposing to provide access to the ports of Cairns, Mourilyan, Lucinda and Townsville (the Ports) on condition that vessels requiring towage services acquire those services from the holder of an exclusive towage licence issued by the Applicants in accordance with the Transport Infrastructure Act 1994 (Qld) from 1 July 2017 for up to seven years.
The Applicants propose to engage in the notified conduct after conducting a competitive tender process. The Applicants proposed to run a combined tender process for towage services at the Ports to reduce costs and potentially capture benefits from economies of scale. The Applicants applied for authorisation for this proposal on 8 July 2016. On 9 December 2016, the ACCC granted authorisation A91545 which can be viewed here:
http://registers.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/1197007/fromIte….
