AUSTRALIAN-based grains handler CBH Group has invited a second round of bookings for shipping slots at western Australian grain ports.
The bulk handler seeks to overcome the congestion that has left ships waiting for up to five weeks to load grain.
The company said it had requested grain exporters to submit expressions of interest for slots from June through to August at its four Western Australian ports.
In February 2009, CBH stopped taking bookings as it struggled to move enough grain to port to fill waiting ships.
Early this month CBH began accepting ship bookings from 20 April to 31 May 2009 under a temporary system designed to regulate bookings so that monthly shipping requirements met the capacity of Western Australia's grain transport network to move grain to port from country storage facilities.
CBH said it remained committed to implementing a more co-ordinated, efficient and commercial shipping allocation system by the start of the new shipping season in November.
To date the bulk handler has exported 4.9 million tonnes of grain from Western Australia's 2008/09 grain crop that totalled 12.3 million tonnes, including 8.9 million tonnes of wheat.
CBH, which lifted its transport capacity to about 1.1 million tonnes a month from 795,000 tonnes by adding extra trucks to its road transport fleet, said it was on track to export record tonnage in March.
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