Maritime activity grew strongly in the decade to 2011–12. Bulk port throughput grew by more than 75 per cent and container trade by two thirds. Concurrent with, and facilitating, this growth has been the trend to much larger bulk and container vessels.
To 2030, the bulk freight task will increase by half and national container throughput is projected to double. Australia’s containerised international exports will almost double by 2030 due to strong demand from China and South East Asia. At the same time Australia’s strong demand for consumer goods imports will grow broadly in line with the economy, increasing freight imports