Ann: Investor Presentation - FY20 Full Year Results, page-2

I listened to some of the analyst briefing with Maurice James, Managing Director and Paul Digney, Chief Operating Officer.

The rains in eastern Australia will help to drive extra exports. QUB is already seeing an increase in calls about bookings from NSW and Victoria (although to be fair, this has to translate into freight). While not mentioned specifically, it's worth noting companies like GNC may be very busy from December handling what may be a far higher grains harvest than in 2019-20.

Patrick's (Ports) has maintained market share at around 45 per cent. It changed its infrastructure charges in FY 2019-20 to be lower for exporters and higher for importers (of containers: 'TEUs'). It had noted state governments in NSW, Victoria and WA were focused on encouraging exports. After it did this, second operator DP World copied it but third operators such as Filipino-owned MICT in Melbourne and others haven't followed suit.

The Moorebank logistics/intermodal park is going well but NSW government licensing of heavy articulated 'A-Double' trucks is eroding in the short term the competitiveness of moving containers to/from Port Botany by rail from/to Moorebank. However QUB says this won't affect it medium term as road-based tolling charges keep rising and (perhaps slowly?) governments are moving to mass-based road charging that will mean truck transfers, even with articulated vehicles, are relatively more expensive.

Australia's #1 supermarket chain, WOW, has said it's interested in moving products from Moorebank down to Melbourne by rail. WOW recently committed to a major investment at Moorebank.

QUB has handled 13000 TEU at Morrebank in the last six months, below forecast. Perhaps some is due to COVID-19 (four months) effect?

In Melbourne,QUB retains the option to purchase 1100 hectares of land at Beveridge on the northern city outskirts. This will be on the route of the slowly being built Brisbane to Melbourne inland rail. Mr James said it's a essentially a competition between Beveridge and another site (non-QUB) at Truganina in Melbourne's west as to which eventually proceeds.

Mr James said the recent Victorian Government announcement of funding to connect rail to Salta Properties' Dandenong South (Melbourne southeastern suburbs) warehouses would still mean challenges for moving containers from Melbourne's port by rail. (Inland rail, when finished, will be standard gauge, whereas the Dandenong/Cranbourne lines are the wider broad gauge tracks, so one isn't compatible with the other).

In Brisbane, whether inland rail has a standard gauge connection to the Fishermans Island port remains unresolved.

With the ports, there are no contracts due for renewal in FY 2020-21 which it was implied is good for QUB.

The company confirmed it will receive some benefit from JobSeeker (Federal Government) payments until September 2020 but beyond that couldn't comment.

It is looking at some accretive acquisitions but it was implied these are more 'bolt-on' type, not major. The QUb gents made a point of saying that it doesn't undertake acquisitions just for the sake of it: there are many hurdles these have to pass, but 'the team has been kept busy' or similar was a takeaway comment.

All in all given the border closures I thought this was a fairly good situation for a major logistics provider to be in, especially since there's been a bit of an uptake in shipping volumes in July and August.