The three coal terminals at Australia's Newcastle port increased their combined shipments of thermal and coking coal 39% week on week to 3.45 million mt on Monday, hitting a 13-week high, according to Newcastle Port Corp. data released Tuesday.
Shipments picked up following the lingering effect of a three-day shutdown over April 29 to May 1 to the Hunter Valley railway, which supplies coal exports to Newcastle port.
A total of 32 ships had berthed at Newcastle port in the latest reporting period -- seven-day period to 7 am Monday Australian Eastern Standard Time (2100 GMT Sunday) -- up from 25 ships in the previous week, NPC said in its operating report.
Last week's coal shipments for Newcastle port reached the highest volume since 4 million mt was shipped from the port in the seven-day period ended February 17.
Port Waratah Coal Services loaded a total of 2.38 million mt on to 26 ships that arrived at its two terminals for coal exports at Newcastle port -- Carrington and Kooragang -- in the week ended Sunday, said the Hunter Valley Coal Chain Coordinator in a report, Sunday.
The export volume for the PWCS terminals was up from 1.7 million mt loaded on to 18 vessels in the prior week to May 11, said the HVCCC in an earlier report.
Data on shipment volumes for the third coal terminal at Newcastle port operated by a group of five coal companies including BHP Billiton, Peabody Energy and Yancoal, were unavailable.
Platts calculates that the Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group terminal shipped around 1 million mt of coal exports last week based on port shipping data.
Railings of coal exports to the three coal terminals totaled 3.23 million mt in the week period ended May 18, and similar to the level for the week ended May 11 at 3.22 million mt, said the HVCCC in its reports.
The shipping queue for Newcastle's PWCS coal terminals continues to diminish, receding to only 3 ships on Monday from 7 vessels one week earlier, said HVCCC in its report.
"Based on terminal demand, the queue at PWCS is estimated to be less than five at the end of May and June," said the HVCCC in its latest report.
Approximately 80-85% of coal shipped from Newcastle port is thermal coal and the remaining 10-15% is coking coal, according to PWCS on its website.
