Newcastle Coal Shipments Up 24 Per Cent

Number of Ships Waiting Falls

Coal shipments from Newcastle port in the Australian state of New South Wales rose 24 percent last week while the number of vessels waiting to load reduced.

In the week ended 7 a.m. local time yesterday 2.1 million metric tons of coal left the port, up from 1.7 million metric tons the preceding week, the port authority said on its web site.

Forty-six vessels were waiting outside the harbour waiting to load 3.11 million tons of coal; this was down from 52 vessels the previous week; however the average waiting time per vessel rose to 20.08 days from 18.25 days a week earlier.

Newcastle is the world’s busiest coal export harbour.

Meanwhile power-station coal prices at Newcastle increased by 0.15 percent to $94.98 a ton, according to the globalCOAL NEWC Index. Newcastle prices are seen as a benchmark for the Asia power generation industry.