Adani Australia has been ordered to pay $106.8 million to four coal companies including Lake Vermont, QCoal, Byerwen Coal and Sonoma Mine for a contractual dispute regarding the access and terminal handling charges of Abbot Point coal terminal in North Queensland. On late Thursday, Queensland Supreme Court in a judgement said that Adani had not offered “reasonable charges” to access and handle terminal of the port between July 2017 and July 2018. Queensland Coal, a Rio Tinto-owned company in 2016, had negotiated an agreement for its right of exporting coal from port to Adani’s mining arm from 2022 and as a part of deal Adani had been paid a total of $255 million by Queensland Coal.

After the deal was signed the four coal companies Lake Vermont, QCoal, Byerwen Coal and Sonoma Mine were alleged and, Adani has increased the access and handling charges for other companies trying to place its own interests on other port customers.

The court judgement reported by The Guardian found that “the port is in practical effect, a facility which is shared and paid for by all the users, although the port was not under their control and that the monopolistic nature of Adani’s ownership placed users in a position of economic vulnerability.”

Abbot Point Terminal, the country’s eastern coast is owned and operated by Adani Australia which is under leasehold period of 99-year granted by the state of Queensland in June 2011. It is one of the three coal ports which is located within 200 kms of Australia’s major coal provinces, the Bowen Basin.