Coal exports from Australia’s Gladstone Port, the world’s fourth-largest coal export terminal, declined 32 percent in the first half of this month amid waning demand from steelmakers in Asia.
Shipments in the first two weeks of January totalled about 1.7 million metric tons, Leo Zussino, Gladstone Port Corp. chief executive officer, said yesterday . That compares with exports of about 2.5 million tons in the last two weeks of December, he said.
“We’ve had in January a significant softening of exports of metallurgical coal,” Zussino said. “There is a great deal of uncertainty and that’s to some extent being created by the commencement of price negotiations for metallurgical coal.”
The port shipped 54 million tons of coal last fiscal year but Mr Zussino said it may miss its 2009 fiscal year budget of 62 million tons by as much as 4 million tons on rail constraints and a demand slump.
Source: Bloomberg
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