Thermal and semi-soft coal shipments to China from the Port Waratah Coal Services terminals in eastern Australia slackened in August, slipping 13% month on month to 2.24 million mt from 2.6 million mt in July, said the port operator in a report, Monday.
In percentage terms, China was the destination for 25% of coal shipped from the PWCS exports facility last month, including 0.8% or 70,000 mt exported to the Chinese territory of Hong Kong, and roughly the same percentage as in July, said PWCS.
Chinese demand for thermal coal imports has continued at a steady pace, and August's small dip in export volumes to the Asian country may reflect lower total shipments from PWCS last month at 8.98 million mt compared with July's record-breaking 10.29 million mt, said market sources.
Maintenance to Newcastle port's railway network in mid-August trimmed coal export volumes that month, according to shipping data.
Port Waratah's flow of coal exports to China had been on an upward trend since hitting a low of 1.34 million mt in May, and only 1 million mt was shipped to China by PWCS during the Lunar New Year month of February.
Current market prices for high-ash 5,500 kcal/kg NAR thermal coal shipped from Newcastle port remain relatively depressed at $66.80/mt FOB on a 20% ash basis, and have traded in the mid-$60s/mt FOB Newcastle since tumbling from $70/mt at the end of June, according to Platts' price assessments.
Japan's intake of coal exports from the PWCS facility at Newcastle port were steady month on month at 4.75 million mt in August, compared with 4.8 million mt in July, according to the PWCS report.
Japanese customers purchased 53% of Port Waratah's coal shipments for August, an increase on a market share of 47% in July.
South Korean buyers took delivery of 948,000 mt of coal at the PWCS terminals at Newcastle port in August, or 10.5% of that month's total export volume, and down from 1.6 million mt shipped to the Asian country in July.
Taiwan, another important destination for PWCS coal exports, accounted for 598,000 mt of coal cargoes shipped from the company's two coal terminals at Newcastle last month, or 6.6% of August's total.
But, this was less than the 980,000 mt of coal exports that PWCS shipped to Taiwan in July.
Thermal coal accounted for 84%, or 7.5 million mt of the coal cargoes loaded onto ships at the PWCS terminals in August, and 16% or 1.4 million mt was semi-soft coking coal, said the company's report.
Around one dozen coal producers and traders ship their export coal through the PWCS terminals which have a combined capacity of around 140 million mt/year.
Export data for another coal terminal at Newcastle port, the 66 million mt/year NCIG terminal operated by the Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group of five coal producers including BHP Billiton, Centennial Coal and Peabody Energy, is not published on a regular basis.
