Combined coal stocks at China's four major Bohai Sea ports dropped 920,000 mt or 5.4% week on week to 16.1 million mt Sunday, according to Qinhuangdao Port data released Monday.
Qinhuangdao Port's coal stocks stood at 6.67 million mt Sunday, down 6.4% from the previous week. Stocks at Jingtang Port fell 7.2% week on week to 3.85 million mt, at Caofeidian Port fell 5.2% to 2.38 million mt and at Tianjin Port edged down 0.1% week on week to 3.21 million mt.
The number of vessels in queues at the four ports totaled 219 Sunday, compared with 182 on August 12, 264 on August 5 and 181 on July 29, Qinhuangdao Port said in the statement.
There were 128 vessels queuing Sunday at Qinhuangdao Port, up 45 from the previous week; 30 at Jingtang Port, down by 12; 32 at Tianjin Port, up by three; and 29 at Caofeidian Port, up by one.
Meanwhile, coal stocks at Fangcheng Port in southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, a key import facility for coal from South Africa, stood at 6.15 million mt Sunday, down from 6.25 million mt a week ago and 6.3 million mt on August 5, according to a source at Fangcheng Port.
An increase in outbound shipments is behind the drop in coal stocks, the port source said, adding that large local power plants have recent trucked away two Panamax shipments of coal. By the end of August, there is only one mini-Capesize coal vessel slated for unloading at Fangcheng Port.
Stocks at the port stabilized in the range of 6.2 million-6.3 million mt for most of July, down from about 6.5 million mt over late May-early June and a high of about 8 million mt in late February.
