Coal Vessel Queue at Newcastle Port `Unacceptably Long,' Adding to Costs

Port Waratah Coal Services Ltd., operator of two export terminals at Newcastle in Australia, said queues of ships waiting to load the commodity at the harbor are “unacceptably long,” causing higher costs for the industry.

An average of 46 ships have queued outside the port in New South Wales waiting to load cargoes since January, compared with 30 vessels the previous year, Port Waratah said in an e-mailed statement today. The terminals are operating below capacity because too little coal is being delivered, it said.

Port Waratah is in talks with coal producers to review the timing of coal deliveries by rail to the port to better match volumes with ship movements. Rio Tinto Group, Xstrata Plc and BHP Billiton Ltd. are among mining companies that export from the harbor.

Under Port Waratah’s plan, applications for ships to be loaded may be rescheduled if there isn’t enough rail capacity to deliver coal to the terminals when vessels are expected to arrive, it said. The process will be handled by the Hunter Valley Coal Chain Coordinator Ltd., which manages exports through the rail and port system at Newcastle, the terminal operator said.

Newcastle has three terminals and is the world’s biggest export harbor for power station coal. Port Waratah expects to ship 97 million metric tons this year, the company said.

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

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