2017 Access Undertaking

The QCA approved DBCT Management Pty Ltd’s (DBCTM's) amended 2015 Draft Access Undertaking (DAU) on 16 February 2017. The amended DAU, submitted on 9 February 2017, is now  the 2017 access undertaking for DBCT.

The approved DAU markup and the QCA’s letter to DBCT Management about its decision can be downloaded below from the ‘Final approval’ folder. In addition, clean versions of the documents are available for information.

In accordance with section 134(1) of the QCA Act, the QCA considered DBCT Management Pty Ltd’s (DBCTM’s) 2015 draft access undertaking (DAU) and decided to refuse to approve it.

In accordance with section 134(2) of the QCA Act, on 21 November 2016, the QCA gave DBCTM a notice (a ‘Secondary Undertaking Notice’) stating the reasons for the refusal (being those reasons contained in the attachment, including the appendices) and asking DBCTM to amend its 2015 DAU in the way set out in Appendices A and B of that attachment, being the way the QCA considered appropriate.

The QCA asked DBCTM to provide a copy of the amended DAU within 60 days of receiving the Secondary Undertaking Notice. This period was subsequently extended under section 134(2A) of the QCA Act to 17 February 2017.

The Secondary Undertaking Notice and related documents can be found in the ‘Final Decision’ folder on this page. Additional correspondence can be found in the 'Post Final Decision Correspondence' folder.

On 22 April 2016, we released a draft decision on DBCT Management's 2015 DAU.

We invited stakeholders to comment on our draft decision by 8 July 2016. We received submissions from DBCT Management, DBCT User Group, Glencore, Aurizon Operations and Aurizon Network. Submissions will be considered by the QCA prior to making a final decision on the 2015 DAU.

Our draft decision was to refuse to approve the 2015 DAU. We identified the manner in which we considered the 2015 DAU should be amended to enable us to approve it in accordance with our obligations under the QCA Act. In forming our draft decision, we considered submissions from DBCT Management, the DBCT User Group and Vale, as well as other submissions received on related processes.

All information relating to the 2015 DAU, including our draft decision, consultant reports and stakeholder submissions received to date, is available below.

Further submissions

The QCA received submissions from five stakeholders on its draft decision on DBCT Management’s 2015 DAU.

QCA staff considered there were a small number of new proposals and/or information presented by stakeholders in their initial submissions on the draft decision that warranted further consultation with stakeholders. QCA staff developed a list of issues/questions to assist stakeholders in considering matters associated with the identified new proposals and/or information.

We received two submissions by the due date, 26 August 2016 - these were from DBCT Management and the DBCT User Group. In addition, DBCT Management also provided an additional submission commenting on some other issues. The submissions are available below.

WACC

On 30 June 2016, we released a report from Incenta Economic Consulting on DBCT Management's debt risk premium and the risk-free rate for the 2015 DAU. We invited submissions on this report and received one submission by the deadline, which is available below, along with Incenta's report.

In light of the submissions we received on our draft decision, we commissioned Jeremy Brasington to provide advice on interest rate swap transaction costs. The report is available below.

On 23 June 2015, we issued an initial undertaking notice under section 133 of the Queensland Competition Authority Act 1997 (the QCA Act) requiring Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal (DBCT) Management to submit a draft access undertaking (DAU) to us within 90 days after receiving the notice, i.e. by 21 September 2015.
 
The DAU will be for the services declared under section 250(1)(c) of the QCA Act. This notice commences a process under the QCA Act for putting in place a new approved access undertaking for DBCT.

In response to a request by DBCT Management, and in accordance with section 133 of the QCA Act, we extended the period referred to in the initial undertaking notice. DBCT Management was then required to submit a DAU by 5pm on 19 October 2015. The notice of extension, and our response to DBCT Management are included below.
 
On 12 October 2015, we received a draft access undertaking (2015 DAU) from DBCT Management within the time specified in our extension to the initial undertaking notice.
 
Under section 134 of the QCA Act, we must consider a DAU submitted in response to an initial undertaking notice and decide whether to approve that DAU.

We received submissions on DBCT Management’s 2015 DAU from the DBCT User Group and Vale Australia. These are available below.

We also received supplementary submissions after the deadline from the DBCT User Group and DBCT Management.  We considered these submissions in our draft decision, but noted that further analysis may be required on some issues.

The timely consideration of DBCT Management’s 2015 DAU is a priority for us.  Subject to section 168B of the QCA Act, we may make a decision without taking into account late information (submissions or other information provided after the deadline stated by the QCA).