Australia’s Newcastle coal ship queue eases

The shipping queue outside the key Australian coal port of Newcastle shrunk to 22 on 9 September from a two-year high of 41 vessels on 5 August, as throughput at the Port Waratah Coal Service (PWCS) terminals hit a seven-month high in August.

• The PWCS terminals' shipments rose to 9.09mn t in August from 8.61mn t in July and from 7.6mn t in August 2023, according to PWCS data. This is the most shipped in a calendar month since January.
• The average vessel turnaround time in August at PWCS eased to 6.95 days from 7.38 days in July but was up from 2.17 days in August 2023.
• There was a major rail maintenance programme over 3-6 August with none planned for September and the next during 1-4 October.
• Newcastle Coal Infrastructure (NCIG) does not release data for its terminal at Newcastle, while the Port Authority of New South Wales has not yet released overall data for August. Newcastle shipped 11.96mn t in July, down from 12.28mn t in June. This implies that NCIG shipped 3.35mn t in August, which is the least it has shipped since August 2024 when it also shipped 3.35mn t.
• Newcastle shipped 85.16mn t during January-July, up from 81.34mn t for January-July 2023, according to port data.

By Jo Clarke