While the ports and logistics business units have been purchased by Qube and Brookfield, ownership of PN has been transferred to a group of pension funds and investment banks.

Prior to the official breakup of the company, Asciano released its 2015-16 financial year results showing revenues down 5.4% from $A 3.84bn ($US 2.9bn) in 2014-15 to $A 3.63bn in 2015-16. Statutory net profit after tax fell 24.4% to $A 272m, down from the previous year’s figure of $A 359.6m.

PN revenues dropped by 2.3% to $A 2.37bn. It experienced a 3.8% decline in bulk rail revenue (net of coal access) driven by a 3% increase in coal net-tonne-km, but offset by a 13.9% decline in other bulk net-tonne-km. The decline in other bulk volumes was attributed primarily to export grain volumes, minerals and specialised products.

Intermodal rail revenue dropped by 3.7% to $A 878.1m, driven by a 6.4% decline in net-tonne-km over 2014-15. Despite the drop in revenue, container volumes increased 3.6% from 771,500 TEU to 799,100 TEU for the year. Intermodal continues to be impacted by lower volumes east-west reflecting the soft Western Australian economy and relatively stronger volumes north-south.

Coal volumes were down by 2.5% from 162.8 million tonnes to 158.8 million tonnes for the year with increased tonnages in Queensland, but lower volumes in the Hunter Valley where the length of haul (measured in net tonne kilometres) increased by 3%.