Sydney’s Ports Contribution to the Economy

Sydney hosts the second largest container port in Australia, serving the nation’s largest market. With 99 per cent of Australia’s international trade transported by sea, Sydney’s ports are pivotal to Australia’s economic future.

Sydney’s ports have been crucial to the economic development of Australia since they became the country’s first major ports more than 200 years ago. Today, they are an economic powerhouse, handling more than $50 billion of international and domestic trade annually. Each year Sydney’s ports: 

• contribute more than $2.5 billion to the NSW economy;
• support more than 17,000 jobs;
• handle nearly one-third of Australia’s total containerised trade;
• handle increasing amounts of trade; and
• on average, contribute $1 million in revenue to port related businesses for each ship visiting Sydney.

One of the major challenges for Sydney’s ports is to accommodate a steady growth in trade. This growth is being driven by rising employment, increasing population, strong consumer and business demand for imported goods and increasing exports for Australian businesses.

Trade through the ports consists of predominantly imported containerised trade, bringing commodities such as manufactures and household consumables to Sydney and NSW. Other port cargo includes containerised exports, non containerised trade such as bulk goods and liquids, cars and cruise vessels. For further details on trade please refer to the Trade Services section of this website (Link).

The expansion at Port Botany will accommodate projected increases in Sydney’s containerised trade for the next two decades and beyond. By 2024–2025, the port expansion will have generated 9,000 new jobs and, over the preceding two decades, would have injected $16 billion into the NSW economy.