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.

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.

Newcastle Coal Exports Up 15 Per Cent From A Week Ago

Coal exports from the port at Newcastle, Australia, the world's largest coal export terminal, jumped 15 percent from a week ago to 2.13 million tonnes; however this is short of the weekly target of 2.28 million tonnes and could force the port’s operator to cut export quotas for the second quarter.

Quotas for the rest of Q1 have already been cut by 1.7 million tonnes in an attempt to reduce logjams at the terminal. Ship queues fell to 47, of which 14 were due to mines having insufficient coal. Queues are expected to be 44 by the end of this month.