Five ships were waiting to load coal exports at Australia's Newcastle port this week, the shortest queue in 17 months, ahead of several days of rail maintenance next week, according to New South Wales port authority data released Friday.
The queue shrank from 27 ships last week waiting to load coal at the three terminals.
Five Capesize ships would represent demand of about 650,000 mt.
Port Waratah Coal Services' two coal terminals at Newcastle 1.7 million mt of coal ready for loading, the Hunter Valley Coal Chain Coordinator said Friday.
The PWCS terminals shipped 1.69 million mt of coal exports in the week to Sunday, or 1.2 million mt lower than its target of 2.5 million mt.
MAINTENANCE CLOSURE
Newcastle's rail corridor that feeds coal to the export terminals is due to close to coal train traffic from 6 am November 10 to the morning of November 13, operator Australian Rail Track Corp. said Thursday.
Coal trains will be unable to deliver coal to the three Newcastle terminals, the two PWCS facilities, one Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group terminal operated by BHP Billiton, and four other coal producers.
The NCIG operators do not publish regular performance updates for their terminal.
"These shutdowns are planned more than a year in advance to allow our customers to manage their throughput and production schedules and to ensure integration across the intricately managed Hunter coal chain," said ARTC executive general manager Jonathan Vandervoort.
About A$20 million ($14.3 million) of work is being undertaken during next week's rail maintenance including, work to replace railway sleepers and ballast, and technical work to signaling equipment, he added.
In the week to Monday, a total of 32 ships berthed at Newcastle port and loaded coal cargo, down from 37 ships a week earlier, the port authority said.
