Combined coal stocks at China's four major Bohai Sea ports stood at 16.58 million mt on Sunday, up 1.02 million mt or 6.5% week on week, Qinhuangdao Port data released Monday showed.
Coal stocks at Qinhuangdao Port were up 6.1% week on week to 6.91 million mt Sunday, while stocks at Caofeidian Port were up 17.4% to 2.76 million mt. At Jingtang Port, coal stocks were up 6% week on week to 3.69 million mt. But stocks at Tianjin Port fell 10,000 mt over the week to 3.22 million mt as of September 2.
The number of vessels in queue at the four ports totaled 214 Sunday, slightly down from 216 a week ago and 219 on August 19, Qinhuangdao Port said in the statement.
There were 131 vessels in queue at Qinhuangdao Port, up from 130 the previous week; 27 at Jingtang Port, down four; 33 at Tianjin Port, down two; and 23 at Caofeidian Port, up three, as of Sunday.
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 6.24 million mt Monday, up from 6.1 million mt a week ago, according to a source at Fangcheng Port. Stocks at the port stood at 6.15 million mt on August 20, 6.25 million mt on August 13 and 6.3 million mt on August 5.
The port has a design coal storage capacity of 8 million mt.
An increase in inbound coal shipments in the past week, including two Panamax coal cargoes, pushed up coal stocks, the port source said. One mini-Capesize coal vessel is slated for unloading at Fangcheng this week.
