CANBERRA: Coal exports from the Hay Point, Dalrymple Bay and Abbot Point terminals in the Australian state of Queensland rose by 9% in September, from August, to a 15-month high of 12.99 million mt, led by strong gains at the Dalrymple Bay and Abbot Point terminals, the North Queensland Bulk Ports Corporation said.
September’s combined throughput from the three terminals breached the year-to-date monthly average of 12.02 million mt by 970,000 mt, the data showed. From January to September, exports totaled 108.21 million mt, which is higher than the same period last year, when it was at 105.98 million mt.
Despite the multi-month high in September, there remains capacity for significantly higher exports. The three facilities have a combined nameplate export capacity of 190 million mt/year, and in September they operated at an annualized rate of 158.05 million mt/year. For the year to September, the terminals saw an annualized rate of 144.67 million mt/year.
The rise in September was mainly driven by increased exports from the Dalrymple Bay facility. Exports from the 85 million mt/year nameplate capacity terminal surged 19% month on month in September to 6.67 million mt, which, like the combined total, was a 15-month high from the facility. The Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal’s September annualized rate was just 3.85 million mt/year shy of its annual nameplate capacity, hitting 81.15 million mt/year. DBCT is a Queensland state government-owned common user facility.
The Adani Group-owned Abbot Point Coal Terminal also saw a strong month- on-month rise, up by 28% in September to 2.31 million mt, which breached the year-to-date monthly average for the facility of 2.20 million mt, according to NQBP data.
APCT’s annualized rate for September of 28.11 million mt/year, however, remains well below its nameplate capacity of 50 million mt/year. Coal transport on the Newlands Coal Rail System, which links several metallurgical coal mines to the Abbot Point Coal Terminal, was disrupted due to a derailment September 11, operator Aurizon said during the month. Transport was to resume September 19, Aurizon had said at the time.
BMA’s Hay Point terminal bucked the trend and posted losses in September. Exports totaled 4.01 million mt at the terminal during the month, down 12% from August, and below the year-to-date monthly average of 4.14 million mt/year, according to the data. The terminal operated at an annualized rate of 48.79 million mt/year during September, which compares against its nameplate capacity of 55 million mt/year.
