Australia's Newcastle Coal Exports Gain 4%, Ship Queue Drops

By Jesse Riseborough

July 29 (Bloomberg) -- Coal exports from Australia's Newcastle, the world's biggest export harbor for the fuel, rose 4 percent last week after protesters disrupted ship loading during the previous seven days.

Volume shipped in the week ended 7 a.m. local time yesterday rose to 1.67 million metric tons from 1.61 million a week earlier, Newcastle Port Corp. said today on its Web site. A total of 30 ships, waiting to load 3.06 million tons of coal, were lined up outside the port, down from 36 a week earlier.

Shipments from the port a week earlier were disrupted after protesters chained themselves to a conveyor and railroads, temporarily halting coal loading and delaying deliveries. Rio Tinto Group, Xstrata Plc and BHP Billiton Ltd. are among mining companies that ship coal through Newcastle.

Coal ships waited 13.2 days to load coal in the week ended July 28, up from 11.1 days a week earlier, Newcastle Port said. The waiting time compared with 0.82 day for general cargo vessels, it said.

A total of 28 vessels carrying coal left Newcastle in the week ended July 26, five fewer than a week earlier, Newcastle Port said today in an e-mailed report. Fifteen ships were bound for Japan, and one for South Korea, it said. The destinations of the other ships weren't disclosed.

The weekly index for power-station coal prices at the New South Wales port fell $6.15 to $174.70 a metric ton in the week ended July 25, according to the globalCOAL NEWC Index. The price reached a record $194.79 a ton in the week ended July 4.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jesse Riseborough in Melbourne at jriseborough@bloomberg.net