Coal Shipments from Newcastle Increase as Fewer Vessels Line Up to Load

Coal shipments from Australia’s Newcastle, the world’s biggest export port for the power station fuel, rose 16 percent last week while the number of vessels waiting to load shortened.

The volume exported in the week ended 7 a.m. local time yesterday climbed to 2.16 million metric tons from 1.86 million tons in the preceding period, Newcastle Port Corp. said on its website today. Rio Tinto Group, Xstrata Plc and BHP Billiton Ltd. are among mining companies that ship the fuel from the harbor.

Eleven vessels were outside the harbor, down from 12 a week earlier. Seventy vessels were traveling to the port to load coal, Newcastle Port said.

Coal ships waited to load for an average of 9.84 days, down from 11.85 days, the Newcastle Port said in its report. That compares with 0.24 day for general-cargo vessels.

Power-station coal prices at Newcastle, an Asian benchmark, fell 0.7 percent, according to the globalCOAL NEWC Index. Prices dropped to $96.34 a ton in the week ended July 16 from $97.06.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Sharples in Melbourne at bsharples@bloomberg.net

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