Storm Shuts Down World’s Biggest Coal Port

MELBOURNE, April 22 (Reuters) – Australia’s Newcastle port, the world’s largest coal export port, has stopped all ship actions attributable to a cyclonic storm lashing the nation’s east coast, a port spokeswoman stated on Wednesday.

“Due to the weather event, no shipping movements occurred yesterday and port operations also paused,” the spokeswoman stated. “No shipping movements have occurred today.”

Seven coal ships are ready to go away the port, 4 from terminals operated by Port Waratah Coal Services and three from a terminal run by Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group (NCIG).

The port operators declined to touch upon what number of coal ships have been ready offshore to choose up their cargoes from the port, which final yr exported 159 million tonnes of thermal and steel-making coal.

NCIG anticipated to start out receiving trains once more on Wednesday evening, NCIG spokesman Chris Ford stated.

Prices for coal cargoes delivered subsequent month from Newcastle have soared 10 % for the reason that starting of the week to $68 a tonne as merchants anticipated export delays because of the storm.

Exporters via Newcastle embrace BHP Billiton Ltd , Glencore Plc, Rio Tinto Ltd , Peabody Energy Corp, China’s Yancoal Australia Ltd and Whitehaven Coal Ltd. (Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Anand Basu and Richard Pullin)