Pilbara Ports signs deals for Hedland’s Lumsden Point

The Pilbara port authority has struck agreements with four groups planning to use the logistics hub at its new Lumsden Point wharf while also awarding a further construction contract. The four groups are stevedoring companies Qube and Toll and private companies KMSB and Australian Renewable Energy Hub (AREH).

BP-backed AREH plans to utilise the land to support the giant renewables and hydrogen project it intends to build east of Port Hedland. The project has been in the planning stage for more than a decade and been through multiple changes over that time. The new agreement is a small signal that BP and its partners are still pursuing the project. Pilbara Ports said Kimberley Marine Support Base, Qube Holdings and Toll Group have been allocated land to support stevedoring and material handling operations at Lumsden Point.

Kimberley Marine Support Base and sister company Onslow Marine Support Base are best known for developing new port infrastructure at Broome and Onslow respectively. Director Andrew Natta said the group would provide stevedoring servces at Port Hedland to support its customers, similar to the services it already provides at the Onslow and Ashburton ports. The logistics hub is expected to primarily support imports of construction material and consumables into the Pilbara.

On the export side, lithium producers Mineral Resources and Pilbara Minerals will be foundation customers at Lumsden Point.

On the construction front, the port authority said contractor MGN Civil has completed the causeway that will connect two new wharves at Lumsden Point to the logistics hub.

The one-kilometre-long causeway incorporates a 12-metre-wide road and pipeline and logistics corridors. To meet water needs at Lumsden Point, Pilbara Ports has awarded a contract to Digga Civil to construct approximately 2.4 kilometres of new water mains. These mains will connect Lumsden Point to the water supply network in the Wedgefield industrial area.

The overall project is budgeted to cost some $600 million. The first of two new wharves at Lumsden Point is scheduled for completion in mid-2026, with the operations expected to start shortly after.  A second wharf is planned to be completed in late-2026. Ports and Regional Development Minister Stephen Dawson said Lumsden Point was a key enabler for the WA government’s goal of diversifying trade and driving the Pilbara’s transition to renewables.

“Progress is accelerating, with the seawalls, dredging and causeway now complete, and manufacture of the mobile harbour cranes under way,” he said.

Finland’s Konecranes will supply two 200-tonne mobile harbour cranes in 2026 while Acciona is building the wharves.