Third Coal Terminal Opens At Newcastle

Terminal Opens to Protests from Unions and Environmentalists

A third coal export terminal has opened in Newcastle, New South Wales, at a cost over $A1 billion.

Owner Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group (NCIG) says the expansion is needed because of continued strong export demand and the step will keep a workforce of 800 busy for another two to three years.

NCIG won the right to construct the third terminal three years ago. The new terminal – stage one - will take shift as much as 30 million tonnes a year. NCIG will now turn to plans for stage two which will take capacity to 66 million tonnes a year.

"Stage two will double the capability of stage one, adding more than $600 million a year to state revenue through royalties and attract extra investment of more than $1 billion to New South Wales," NCIG chairman Tony Galligan said in a statement.
However, the new terminal has incurred the wrath of trade unions and environmentalists.

About 100 members of the Maritime Union of Australia gathered outside the terminal this morning angry that workers at the new terminal are paid 17 per cent less than those at nearby terminals.

Greens MP Lee Rhiannon said the project would lock the region into what she described as “coal dependency".

"The New South Wales government should be working with the people of the Hunter on a transition plan involving restructuring of industry and retraining programs for workers in clean energy delivery and manufacturing," she said in a statement.
"This coal terminal will drive the opening up of coal mining in the Upper Hunter, Gloucester and Liverpool Plains.

"The resulting increase in coal exports is a setback for dealing with climate change."

Meanwhile, environmental protesters painted "quit coal" in large white letters on the side of a bulk carrier bound for Japan.

Yancoal To Commence Production At NSW Mine

Moolarben Project To Start Exporting In Weeks

Yancoal Australia, has announced that production will start next month at its Moolarben power station coal mine in New South Wales, the company’s biggest project.
Coal will be loaded onto trains at the end of April or early May and exported to China via Newcastle.

Yancoal is a subsidiary of China’s Yanzhou Coal Mining Co., and is a part owner of Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group, which operates a new terminal at the port.

Newcastle Coal Shipments Fall 24 Per Cent

Coal shipments from Australia’s Newcastle port, the world’s biggest coal export harbour, fell 24 percent last week. The number of vessels waiting to load also fell.
The volume exported in the week ended 7 a.m. local time on Monday dropped to 1.11 million metric tons from 1.46 million tons in the preceding week, Newcastle Port Corp. said.

Fifty vessels, waiting to load 3.94 million tons of coal, were outside the harbour, down from 55 a week earlier with ships waiting to load for an average of 15.64 days, from 16.35 days a week earlier, the port authority said. General cargo vessels wait an average of 0.13 days.

Gujarat NRE To Invest In Illawarra Coal Mines

Indian coal miner, Gujarat NRE Coking Coal, is to $500 million into its coal operations at Illawarra in the Australian state of New South Wales.

Gujarat NRE has two hard coking coal mines in the region with production of 1.3 million tonnes a year, but has plans to ramp this up to 6 million tonnes a year over the next five years. All the coal is exported to India via the Port Kembla coal terminal.

The operation employs around 450 people, but this is expected to rise to 600 with the expansion.