Heavy rains and concomitant flooding last week across much of New South Wales, south-eastern Australia caused a series of disruptions at nearby coal producing areas and ports, reports Plamen Natzkoff, Senior Trade Expert at VesselsValue, which said that it had observed a sharp drop in loadings at the Port of Newcastle, the world’s largest export coal port, since Sunday 3rd July.
The heavy rains had prompted mandatory evacuations of parts of the city in order to save lives should the flooding get worse.
Over the course of the week, total exports of coal were just over 1m tons, compared with an average of 3.2 to 3.5 metric tonnes in weekly exports. Newcastle exports predominantly thermal coal used for power generation, as well as smaller volumes of metallurgical coal used in the production of steel. There were currently 31 Bulk Carriers with a combined capacity of 3.3mt, waiting to load off the Port of Newcastle, said VesselsValue. The disruption of coal exports over the past week has been another factor in the very tight global coal markets, currently benefiting from increased demand from Europe and elsewhere as a range of countries look to reduce their dependence on Russian gas
