Re: Latest from the NSW rumour mill

[tmid@ozemail.com.au (TM)]

On Fri, 18 Jun 1999 23:20:22 GMT, mauried@commslab.gov.au (Maurie
Daly) wrote:

>As I understand the deal , all existing coal contracts arnt open to 
>competition until a 5 year moratorium on competition expires,which I beleive 
>is in 2002,although it could be sooner.

You will probably find that this has changed at the behest of the
Minerals Council.

>New coal contracts,ie those previously not held by Freightcorp or from new 
>mines arnt affected,so anyone can tender.

Newstan isn't a new mine, FreightCorp have been hauling coal from
there for a number of years. According to your theory then that
contract would not be open to competition until 2002. So why is
Powercoal calling for tenders? 

OTOH Bengalla is a new mine which started operations this year.
FreightCorp  won that contract and is currently hauling coal from that
mine.


>Whether any new players will get a fair deal from the secret RAC track access 
>regime remains to be seen.
>
>MD

The coal companies know how much they pay in access charges to RAC,
hence the IPART inquiry into RAC access charges earlier this year. If
those companies did not know their individual access charges and those
charges were simply part of the FC haulage charges then they would
have been attacking FreightCorp instead. 

TM