Heavy rains and flooding in Australia’s key coal-producing Queensland state have impacted mining operations and brought parts of the coal infrastructure, including rail and ports, to a standstill, operators said yesterday.
Dalrymple Bay Coal terminal and Gladstone Ports, two of Australia’s biggest coal export terminals, and rail firm QR National , the nation’s top coal transporter, said they were forced to cut back operations due to weather-related disruptions.
Rio Tinto joined several other companies in declaring force majeure on some coal sales contracts yesterday due to the heavy rains, saying the severe monsoonal rains impacted mining operations, access to roads, and disrupted rail hauling. Rio’s shares ended down about 1 per cent on Wednesday.
Production at Anglo American Metallurgical Coal , in particular its Dawson mine in Queensland state, has been disrupted by rains and flooding, which have severely restricted access to the mine.
Biggest exporter:
Australia is the world’s biggest exporter of coking coal used for steel-making and accounts for about two-thirds of global trade. The nation is also the second-biggest exporter of thermal coal used for power generation after Indonesia, with about 20 per cent of world exports.
The country’s unusually wet spring and early summer have already pushed both coking coal and thermal prices sharply higher and tight markets are keeping a close eye on further disruptions. Anglo-Australian mine BHP Billiton is planning to raise the price of coking coal for Japanese steel makers by about 8 per cent to $225 (Dh827.55) a tonne for the January-March period from the current quarter.
Dalrymple Bay Coal terminal at the Port of Hay Point, the world’s largest coal export port with an annual capacity of 129 million tonnes, halted operations as stockpiles have run too low after a train derailment disrupted supplies.
Dalrymple Bay Coal, which ships mostly metallurgical coal, stopped coal shipments on Tuesday after it exhausted its coal stockpiles and aims to restart shipments after Saturday, when trains are expected to resume transporting coal.
Dalrymple Bay currently has about 200,000 tonnes of coal, which is unsuitable for loading, down from an ideal working stockpile of 1.2 million tonnes.
Gladstone Ports Corporation, which has an annual export capacity of 75 million tonnes, said its RG Tanna coal terminal will operate at 50 per cent of capacity this week due to rail system closures after flooding and track damage. “At present we have no trains delivering coal from the Blackwater and Moura rail systems,” Gladstone Ports Corporation Chief Executive, Craig Walker said in a statement.