Australia's Newcastle port shipping queue to pass 50 ships by end-November
The offshore vessel queue for Port Waratah Coal Services' coal terminals at Newcastle port in Australia is expected to exceed 50 ships by the end of November, its highest level since June 2010, the Hunter Valley Coal Chain Coordinator said in its latest report, published Monday on its website.
In a report issued one week earlier, HVCCC said it was expecting 48 ships would be queuing to load coal exports from the PWCS coal terminals at the end of November, Platts reports.
Planned railway maintenance requiring the closure of an extensive section of the Hunter Valley coal chain for three days from November 22 is forecast to trim PWCS coal exports to 7.8 million mt in the month of November, said the HVCCC.
The actual number of ships in the PWCS shipping queue at midnight Australian Eastern Daylight Time (1:00 GMT) October 24 was 38 vessels, according to the HVCCC's website.
The coal chain coordinator, which oversees the flow of exports from 35 coal mines operated by 14 different coal producers such as Anglo American, BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata, expects numbers in the PWCS shipping queue to remain stable through to the end of October.
"The vessel queue is expected to be around 38 [ships] at the end of October based on [vessel] nominations of 9.1 million mt [of coal cargo] and ship-loading of 8.6 million mt," said the HVCCC's latest report.
The continued strong upwards trend in the vessel queue at Newcastle port could reflect the gradual recovery of Japan's demand for imported coal in the wake of its March earthquake, speculated market sources.
Japan is the largest customer for Newcastle coal exports, accounting for 51% of PWCS' 72.4 million mt of coal export tonnage in the nine-month period ended September 2011, according to statistics posted on the PWCS website.
"Hokuriku and some Japanese general industry end-users are in the market for some extra coal," said one market source, who estimated Hokuriku was looking for 1-2 million mt of Newcastle thermal coal. The two PWCS coal terminals at Newcastle port exceeded their target for coal exports of 1.86 million mt for the week ended October 23 by 117,000 mt, having exported 1.95 million mt of coal cargo in the week period, said the HVCCC report. During the month of October, the rate of throughput at the two PWCS terminals has been just over 100 million mt/year.
"October's PWCS month-to-date is at a rate of 100.8 million mt, 160,000 mt below the PWCS declared outbound target," said the HVCCC's report.
Coal stockpile levels at the PWCS terminals were stable on the week at almost 1.2 million mt on October 24.
Trains delivered 2.3 million mt of coal exports to the two PWCS terminals and one Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group terminal in the week ended October 23, which was just 115,000 mt short of the coal chain's weekly target of 2.4 million mt, said the Hunter Valley coal chain coordinator in its report.
In a report issued one week earlier, HVCCC said it was expecting 48 ships would be queuing to load coal exports from the PWCS coal terminals at the end of November, Platts reports.
Planned railway maintenance requiring the closure of an extensive section of the Hunter Valley coal chain for three days from November 22 is forecast to trim PWCS coal exports to 7.8 million mt in the month of November, said the HVCCC.
The actual number of ships in the PWCS shipping queue at midnight Australian Eastern Daylight Time (1:00 GMT) October 24 was 38 vessels, according to the HVCCC's website.
The coal chain coordinator, which oversees the flow of exports from 35 coal mines operated by 14 different coal producers such as Anglo American, BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata, expects numbers in the PWCS shipping queue to remain stable through to the end of October.
"The vessel queue is expected to be around 38 [ships] at the end of October based on [vessel] nominations of 9.1 million mt [of coal cargo] and ship-loading of 8.6 million mt," said the HVCCC's latest report.
The continued strong upwards trend in the vessel queue at Newcastle port could reflect the gradual recovery of Japan's demand for imported coal in the wake of its March earthquake, speculated market sources.
Japan is the largest customer for Newcastle coal exports, accounting for 51% of PWCS' 72.4 million mt of coal export tonnage in the nine-month period ended September 2011, according to statistics posted on the PWCS website.
"Hokuriku and some Japanese general industry end-users are in the market for some extra coal," said one market source, who estimated Hokuriku was looking for 1-2 million mt of Newcastle thermal coal. The two PWCS coal terminals at Newcastle port exceeded their target for coal exports of 1.86 million mt for the week ended October 23 by 117,000 mt, having exported 1.95 million mt of coal cargo in the week period, said the HVCCC report. During the month of October, the rate of throughput at the two PWCS terminals has been just over 100 million mt/year.
"October's PWCS month-to-date is at a rate of 100.8 million mt, 160,000 mt below the PWCS declared outbound target," said the HVCCC's report.
Coal stockpile levels at the PWCS terminals were stable on the week at almost 1.2 million mt on October 24.
Trains delivered 2.3 million mt of coal exports to the two PWCS terminals and one Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group terminal in the week ended October 23, which was just 115,000 mt short of the coal chain's weekly target of 2.4 million mt, said the Hunter Valley coal chain coordinator in its report.