HVCCC says queue of ships at Australia’s Port Waratah coal terminals longest since August

TIN news:   The shipping queue for the Port Waratah coal terminals at Newcastle port, eastern Australia, touched a 23-week high this week with 22 ships, an increase on 18 ships from the previous week, the Hunter Valley Coal Chain Coordinator, the logistics coordinator for Newcastle port’s coal supply chain, said Sunday. The spike in vessel demand for coal exports delivered to ships at the two Port Waratah terminals was not expected to last.
“February’s [ship cargo] nominations are currently 5.1 million mt and based on terminal demand, the queue at PWCS is estimated to be less than 10 [ships] at the end of the month,” .
On January 31, 2015, the PWCS terminals had 34 ships in their combined vessels queue, according to HVCCC data.
Port Waratah coal shippers such as Glencore and Rio Tinto estimate cargo demand at 8.4 million mt for February, rising to 9.3 million mt for March, .
Exports data and vessels in queue for the Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group terminal operated by BHP Billiton on behalf of four other coal producers was unavailable.
FLOODING IMPACT
A total of 8.1 million mt of coal was shipped through the PWCS terminals in January, HVCCC said.
This shipment was 2.9 million mt less than forecast for the month.
Heavy rainfall in early January caused flash flooding in parts of the Hunter Valley rail network used to deliver cargoes to Newcastle port, and resulted in the temporary closure of some lines.
In January alone, the two PWCS terminals loaded a total of 9.8 million mt of coal on to ships, the report said.
Australian coal producers railed 12.67 million mt of coal to Newcastle port’s three terminals — the two PWCS facilities and one NCIG terminal — last month,it was in a report.
This outcome was 3.1 million mt lower than the coal chain’s railings target of 14.5 million mt for January.
“Total losses [for cargo delivery] were 12.8% of the planned rate compared to a declared target of 7.4%,” said the coal chain coordinator in its operating report for January.
A major closure of the rail network serving Newcastle port is planned from 6 am February 23 (2000 GMT February 22) through to 6 am February 26, HVCCC said in a separate report.
The overall shipping queue for Newcastle port had risen to 37 ships in the week ended January 25, compared with 27 ships in the week ended January 18, the port authority of New South Wales said in an operating report.