Heavy rain disrupts Australian coal ports

The Queensland port of Brisbane has been closed because of flooding, and ships have been ordered off anchorage at the New South Wales (NSW) ports of Newcastle and Port Kembla as a result of heavy rain and storms along the east coast of Australia.

All vessel movements have been halted at Brisbane, after large parts of the city was flooded on 28 February. It is the smallest of Queensland coal export terminals, with 3.5mn t shipped in 2021, down from 4.39mn t in 2020 following the ramp-down of New Hope's New Acland coal mine. New Hope is the 100pc owner of Queensland Bulk, the operator of the 10mn t/yr Brisbane coal terminal.

The heavy rain has largely fallen in southeast Queensland, including along sections of the West Morton rail line, which connects Chinese-owned firm Yancoal's Yarrabee and Cameby Downs mines to the port of Brisbane. There was also lighter rain across on the Surat and southern Bowen basins, with already saturated mines more prone to flooding than normal.

The rain is moving south, with ships ordered off anchorage at the port of Newcastle. There were 32 ships waiting to enter the port today, down from 46 a month ago but still above the average of around 12. The NSW coal mining regions of Hunter Valley and Illawarra have received persistent rainfall over the past week, with heavier rain expected during 1-3 March. The rain follows the wettest November on record, which left coal mines saturated and close to or at their limits for the volume of water that they can discharge into the environment.

Newcastle shipped 13.98mn t of coal in January, according to official port data, driven by strong output from the Port Waratah Coal Services terminals at 10.22mn t. Exports from the Newcastle Coal Infrastructure (NCIG) terminal fell to 3.76mn t in January from 4.32mn t in December. The NCIG shipments were up from the 3.48mn t shipped in January 2021, when it was operating with only one shiploader, but down from 4.49mn t in the more comparable January 2020.

The heavy rain has not reached the more northerly Queensland ports, with the ship queue outside the neighboring ports of Hay Point and Dalrymple Bay at 27, up slightly from 26 in mid-February. Gladstone had 37 vessels queuing, up from 32, and Abbot Point had five, down from eight, over the same comparison.

By Jo Clarke