Australia: ACCC loses Aurizon-Pacific National deal in Federal Court

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) lost a court case after trying to block the sale of Auirzon’s Acacia Ridge intermodal terminal near Brisbane to fellow freight operator Pacific National, arguing it would give Pacific National an effective monopoly on rail freight into north Queensland.

The Federal Court on Wednesday, May 15, removed the constraints to the completion of a deal that will see Pacific National take a permanent stranglehold on long-haul freight into and around Queensland.

Pacific National will be delivered to market control in two steps, one sort of organic and the other transactional. And Pacific National will take both of those steps hand-in-hand with its only mainline competitor in Queensland, Aurizon.

The organic part of the story is that Aurizon decided last year to shut its loss-making intermodal freight business.

It has already sold the non-rail parts of that business to Linfox. It will now be able to proceed with a retreat that had been delayed by an ACCC-requested Federal Court injunction.