The number of coal ships using the newly-expanded facilities at the Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal has lamost halved in four months, from 60 coal tankers in august to just 33 in December. The terminal recently added a fourth wharf, a third coal conveyor and a new facility which can unload three coal trains at the same time. The latest expansion brings the facility's coal handling capabilities up to 72 million tonnes a year. But demand for coking coal has dropped off dramatically.
DBCT general manager for operations, Greg Smith, said the expansion meant they could have handled 5.6 million tonnes of coal in December. Instead they only loaded 3.4 million tonnes into the dwindling number of tankers queuing off the coast.
“There has definitely been a downturn in the number of ships arriving; it happened very quickly, we only started to see it in November,” Mr Smith said.
The terminal loaded 43 ships with 3.95 million tonnes of coking coal in November. In December demand dropped by 14 per cent to 3.4 million tonnes or $64 million less coal.
The slump in demand has continued into January with only 11 ships loaded so far, Mr Smith said.
“It should be better than that, the capability of the terminal is to load two-and-a-half ships a day,” he said.
In spite of the slowdown Mr Smith said DBCT would continue the last stage of expansion, which would increase capacity to 85 million tonnes a year.
“This is one of the problems with terminal expansion. It is not the sort of thing you can turn on and off, all these things take time to actually build and this downturn has been very quick.”
Mr Smith said he expected the slump to continue into February.
“But in March anything could happen.”
“Steel mills should have low levels of coking coal left by then; we could have a heavy March.”
Queensland Resources Council (QRC) chief executive Michael Roche predicts demand for coking coal may not pick up until the middle of the year.
“The fall in demand for metallurgical coal is unprecedented and indicative of a 17 per cent collapse in global steel output between September and November 2008,” he said.
“Recession is now a fact of life in most developed economies and no-one is immune from the consequences. QRC members are hopeful that economic stimulus packages announced by governments in Europe and China will begin to reverse the slump in demand for minerals around the middle of the year.”
Source: Mackay Daily Mercury
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