James Orford

James is an Associate Director at NineSquared with 10 years’ experience across a range of sectors including transport, electricity, energy and mining. James has experience in providing analysis and advice on pricing and contract strategies, as well as detailed resource market insight and projections, forecasting and scenario assessment. James has BMaths and BBus (Accounting) from the Queensland University of Technology. James has worked on a number of assignments in the resources, transport and government sectors

Selected project experience

Contributing to the economic impact assessment of developing new cruise shipping terminals.
Developing a channel management strategy for an Australian government organisation. The strategy included the analysis of data associated the use and cost of various channels within the context of changing technology platforms.
Leading the development and review of an Australian coal mine cost curve. Capturing over 90 coal mines and 100% of Australian metallurgical and thermal coal exports, the cost curve included mining, processing, railing port and other costs.
Preparing a high level report identifying potential coal mine acquisition/joint venture opportunities in New South Wales and Queensland. Targets were based on mine characteristic criteria supplied by the client, and was used to assist in ongoing investment decisions.
Leading the comprehensive supply/demand and throughput study for a major Australian coal port. The study included a review of current and forecast coal supply including coal production and rail contract arrangements and expansion plans, analysis on forecast international demand of coal and review of receiving ports for coal.
Leading a review of the Asian seaborne coal trade, and assessed the potential for the client to provide a tendering solution to the market. This included providing an understanding of seaborne coal market fundamentals, procurement methods across jurisdictions and developing potential market entry strategies.
Leading a Global Coking Coal and Thermal Coal Market Outlook to 2030, which included the identification of key supply and demand markets of the resource in the future. The coal supply and demand analysis was conducted by key markets which included a detailed overview of drivers and constraints, industry characteristics, and historical data.
Developing a supply and demand forecast model, which included regulatory hurdles and infrastructure bottlenecks. The demand supply model constituted thermal coal production, demand and export using bottom up approach. Impact of Domestic Market Obligation (DMO) and other government policies to the Indonesian coal industry were also analyzed together with the infrastructure constraints and proposed rail and port infrastructure projects.
Developing a fit-for-purpose scenario analysis tool to assess the transportation requirements for a ‘fly-in, fly-out’ workforce required at mine site during the construction and operating phases of the mines.
Providing advice and modelling on commercial, economic and policy issues relating to options for the contracting of bus services in Queensland. This included the development a detailed 10 year financial model to assess key decisions, development of reform options and payment mechanisms.
Reviewing the likely impacts of the carbon tax on the Queensland transport budget. This included estimating the likely impact of the carbon tax on various sectors of the transport budget areas including roads, service contracts and maritime operations and determining the likely exposure of the Government under their existing and future contracting arrangements.
Member of project team appointed as Commercial and Financial Advisor to Department of Transport Victoria to assist in the preparations for regional bus contract renewal and implementation of procurement processes. Project responsibilities included a commercial and financial review of arrangements for regional bus contracts, analysis of cost and margin for industry consultation, the formulation of a financial and operational transparency process, evaluation of tender responses, and the development of financial models to assess value for money.
Analysis of costs and charges for the provision of wharf infrastructure for the passenger ferry network by Auckland Transport
Reviewing models used by Auckland Regional Transport Authority used for preparing budgets for the bus, ferry and rail service provider contracts.
Developing a fares and revenue model for a New Zealand Transit Authority to assist in ticketing and fares policy. The model was designed to examine fares revenue impact associated with significant fares structural change.
Developing a financial model for TransLink regarding the Queensland Government’s intention to establish a South East Queensland Transit Authority. The model was designed to forecast over a ten year period, a number of additional costs related to establishing the Transit Authority.
Developing a pricing and revenue model for TransLink to forecast revenue over a 20 month period to coincide with the establishment of a South East Queensland
Transit Authority. The model was to assist TransLink in understanding the revenue impact during the implementation of a new smartcard and beyond, and also to assist in future pricing decisions.