Outloading canola from a Viterra bunker in South Australia.
REGIONAL REPORT
Australian Regional Report Jay Venter
MAY 2022
www.drycargomag.com
Kilic Engineering supplying handling solutions to Australia and beyond
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With a record cereal crop handled in Australia over the 2021/2022 season, coupled with strong grain prices, the grain industry in the country is extremely buoyant with continued growth experienced by grain handlers and through the grain handling supply chain. Despite the volume of grain breaking records, competition amongst handlers is increasing. The major bulk handlers, namely CBH, Viterra and GrainCorp, with their history in nationalized bulk handling bodies or farmer co-operatives have been joined by several entrepreneurial players. The new players’ backgrounds range from commodity traders to milling companies to transport and logistics specialists with all seeing an opportunity to take on the big guys. When Croatian immigrant Tony Kilic started the Kilic Engineering (KE) business in Southern Australia in the early 1970s, one of his first customers was the statebased monopoly bulk grain handling business, South Australian Co-operative Bulk Handling Limited (SACBH), which owned and operated all that state’s 112 inland grain receival sites and seven export bulk grain terminals. KE’s first work with the bulk handler was to provide a conveying system into one of its port facilities and once this
project was completed on time and well below budget, an immediate trust and loyalty was developed between the two organizations. So strong was the association that was formed between KE and the SACBH team in those early years, that almost five decades on, KE continues to be a major provider of bulk material handling equipment to SACBH’s successor, Global Agri-business Viterra Ltd. Although Viterra have been challenged during periods of rapid expansion and more recent consolidation phases, KE continues to provide ongoing support and new material handling equipment to their business. True to its core, KE has maintained a healthy relationship with its
major client to ensure that Viterra can continue to provide a world class storage and handling system for its grower and export customers. For the 2022/23 upcoming grain harvest,Viterra have purchased multiple KE BunkerStacker receival machines, with capacities ranging from 600 to 750tph (tonnes per hour), to its existing fleet of almost 100 units. As mentioned earlier, competition for export handling services is on the increase across Australia, with South Australia attracting much attention given to its consistently high annual volumes of export grain, with only a small domestic market operating within the State. Trader and Handler, ADM has joined T-Ports, Cargill
Bunker stackers used at T-Ports’ receival operations in South Australia.
