Coal deliveries to DBCT to resume

Deliveries to the Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal (DBCT) should resume by the evening of 14 March, following a derailment on 10 March that halted deliveries to the port.

Stocks at the port were down to 693,876t on 11 March, raising concerns that they could run out fast, especially since ship loading had been continuing as usual in the aftermath of the derailment.

Vessel queues at the DBCT have been around a high 20 to 30 mark for the past few weeks because of continuing port maintenance. Some market participants expect a minor bottleneck to occur within the next few days because of this, depending on how low stocks get before coal deliveries can finally resume. Initial estimates of the coal delivery disruption were about 48-72 hours.

But the incident has left market participants mostly unmoved. "I think some degree of delay is expected without this derailment anyway, with the port undergoing maintenance since February," a Japanese trader said. "This seems like just a small blip within the larger scheme of things."