The vessel queue at Australian Newcastle port’s three terminals for coal exports fell to 55 vessels this week from 61 a week earlier, despite four days of maintenance closing the port’s Hunter Valley rail network, the Port Authority of New South Wales said in a report Monday, May 25.
The 28 ships that entered Newcastle port to load coal exports in the seven days to Monday had waited an average of 9.8 days in the port’s vessel queue, the authority said.
The port’s railway system for delivering coal exports was closed last Tuesday-Friday for scheduled maintenance, reducing the delivery of coal to the port by rail to 1.8 million mt for the seven-day period, the Hunter Valley Coal Chain Coordinator said in a separate report.
Deliveries by rail the week before had been almost double at 3.5 million mt, HVCCC said in an earlier report.
Shipments from Newcastle port’s Port Waratah Coal Service-operated terminals totaled 2.17 million mt in the week to Sunday, while stocks fell to 1.3 million mt from 2.2 million mt the week before, HVCCC said.
The vessel queue for two PWCS terminals Kooragang and Carrington was 33, up seven from the week before, HVCCC said.
“Based on terminal demand, the queue at PWCS is estimated to be 23 at the end of May and 19 at the end of June,” HVCCC said in its report.
The third terminal, operated by the Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group of major producers, does not release weekly vessel queue and operational data.
Using the Newcastle Port Authority and PWCS data, Platts estimated the NCIG vessel queue at 22 ships Sunday, down 35 from the week before.
HVCCC data shows 28 vessels loaded coal at Newcastle terminals in the week to Sunday, an increase of two from the week before.
For the first time since early April, throughput at the two PWCS terminals exceeded Declared Outbound Throughput or DOT, the shiploading target for the week.
The PWCS terminals’ actual shiploading of 2.17 million mt was up 290,000 mt from the week before and 1.04 million mt higher than DOT.
Month-to-date shiploading at the PWCS terminals at midnight Sunday stood at 6.87 million mt, an increase of 271,000 mt on DOT.
Producers forecast arrivals at 8.5 million mt for May, 9.4 million mt for June and 8.9 million mt for July, according to HVCCC.
Source: Platts
