Australian port authority Pilbara Ports will clear all berths at the Ports of Ashburton, Cape Preston West, Dampier, and Varanus Island by 4pm local time (8am GMT) on 6 February, while Port Hedland will be closed by 9.30pm local time, it said today.
Pilbara Ports will move ships out of the ports, which handle LNG and iron ore exports, because of the fast-developing Tropical Low 21U storm, it added. The port authority moved the export hubs into Cyclone Alert 2 earlier this week, market participants told Argus on 5 February.
Tropical Low 21U is currently hovering off the coast of Western Australia's (WA) Kimberley region, according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM). It is likely to develop into a cyclone by 8am local time on 7 February, as it moves south towards WA's iron ore-rich Pilbara region, BoM forecasts show.
The weather system may pass close to Dampier early on 8 February. Producers shipped 1.4mn t of LNG out of Dampier port in December, down by 12pc on the year, and 15mn t of iron ore, up by 9pc on the year.
Pilbara Ports' other export hubs handled 52mn t of iron ore in December.
WA ports have faced weather disruptions before. Four cyclones lashed Pilbara in January-February 2025, pushing down producer BHP and Rio Tinto's WA iron ore sales in the first quarter of 2025.
Cyclone Sean flooded a railcar dumper at Rio Tinto's East Intercourse Island (EEI) facility at Dampier on 20 January 2025, halting loadings at the site until early March. But Rio Tinto continued to move ore out of other WA facilities over that period.
