CANBERRA: Nineteen ships were heading to Australia’s Newcastle port to load coal exports Monday, down from 21 last week and the shortest queue since mid-August 2014.
Another eight ships were at the port waiting for berthing slots, and six were berthed at the port’s three coal terminals taking on cargoes as of 7 am Sydney time (2100 GMT Sunday), according to a report by the New South Wales port authority. The shipping queue is a measure of coal demand. The shorter queue could be seasonal, as it also shrank a year ago before rising to 61 ships in the week to September 21.
Thirty one ships called at Newcastle port and loaded coal in the week to Monday, down from 34 a week earlier, the report said. Ships waited an average of 5.2 days offshore Newcastle port last week before entering the port, down from 6.6 days a week ago.
Nine vessels were waiting to load coal at Port Waratah Coal Services’ two terminals at Newcastle, also the lowest since mid-August 2014, the Hunter Valley Coal Chain Coordinator said Sunday. The logistics coordinator for the Newcastle coal supply chain expects the PWCS queue to stay below 10 ships for the rest of the month.
Customers of the PWCS terminals have nominated ships to load 8.3 million mt of coal exports in September, and coal producer estimate 9.6 million mt in September loadings, HVCCC said. The PWCS terminals shipped 2.19 million mt of coal exports in the week to Sunday, up marginally from 2.17 million mt a week earlier.
Shareholders for the PWCS coal terminals include Glencore and Rio Tinto and some Japanese trading houses, and the other coal terminal at Newcastle port is operated by the BHP Billiton-led Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group.
