By mid next year Port of Newcastle hopes to be underway with it's planned $2.4 billion upgrade after the bill introduced by independent MP Greg Piperto to remove it's 50,000 per year container cap has now become an act.
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The proposed Newcastle Deepwater Container Terminal (DCT) is planned at the former BHP Steelworks facility at Mayfield with works on a world-class, highly-automated terminal expected to take five years to complete.
It will be worth the wait with the new facility expected to have a throughput of two million standard twenty-foot containers per year and be able to service ultra large container vessels.
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Port of Newcastle's senior manager corporate affairs, Lucas Coleman said there are still some steps to be made before work can start.
"We have to submit a letter to the treasurer to get a value of what the port would have cost with no container cap back in 2016," Mr Coleman said.
"We will have to pay the government the difference, provided the extra amount is feasible.
"However, we are committed to building the DCT to support our agribusiness exporters."
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Five years is still a while away, but Mr Coleman said the port is already capable of a throughput higher than the current cap.
"There is a six month time frame to have the valuation and agreed payment details completed," he said.
"While those details are being agreed upon, the 50,000 container cap is still in place.
"We have our two mobile cranes and have already unloaded our first container ship with them."
The port believes the new DCT will bring the efficiency exporters have been looking for.
"The new DCT will cater for 1.8 kilometre trains which will provide significant savings to exporters," Mr Coleman said.
"One of our strengths is we have 93 per cent rail to berth.
"It also means for every one train through the port is 80 trucks off our roads."
NSW Farmers was pleased with the removal of the container cap which they say will save growers up to $2.8b over 30 years.
President Xavier Martin said the association had been supportive of the release of the constraints on the port.
"Farmers in the north-west have had their produce trucked past Newcastle to Port Botany, which is wildly inefficient and results not only in extra wear and tear on our country roads, it puts more strain on an already-congested Sydney road network," he said.
"Giving growers the opportunity to send more containerised produce through the Port of Newcastle in a more efficient manner would save farmers between $16 and $22 per tonne, or up to $2.8 billion over the next 30 years, allowing them to reinvest in their businesses and drive even more economic activity in the regions."
