Perth (Platts)--3May2011/526 am EDT/926 GMT

Severe rainfall in the Bowen Basin coalfield at the start of this year is continuing to crimp throughput at the 85 million mt/year Dalrymple Bay export coal terminal which is currently operating at about 50% of capacity, the Queensland terminal's general operations manger, Greg Smith, said Tuesday.

"The system is still plagued by issues resulting from wet weather," said Smith, referring to the terminal's coal chain which serves approximately 20 central Queensland coal mines.

Eight Queensland coal producers, including Anglo Coal, BHP Billiton, Macarthur, Peabody Energy, Vale and Xstrata, ship their thermal and coking coal exports through the Dalrymple Bay terminal.

"We hoped that things would be better in April, but that hasn't been the case. We understand that some mines still have de-watering issues," said Smith.

The Dalrymple Bay terminal's monthly rate of coal exports fell to as low as 2.6 million mt in February, before recovered partially to 3.4 million mt in March. But this was still much lower than 4 million mt and 4.3 million mt in in February and March 2010, respectively, according to data on North Queensland Bulk Ports Corp.'s website.

April coal export figures for the Dalrymple Bay terminal were not available.

FEWER VESSEL NOMINATIONS AT TERMINAL

Bowen Basin coal producers have been accepting fewer vessel nominations at the Dalrymple Bay terminal recently, said Smith. This is because their capacity to provide coal cargoes to the terminal has been reduced while they concentrate on evacuating water that has accumulated in their open-cut pits, he said.

"Nominations are not being accepted by the miners as many of them are under force majeure. With force majeure on, mines cannot accept nominations [for vessel arrivals at the terminal]," said Smith.

Coal trains delivered 131,000 mt of exports to the Dalrymple Bay terminal on May 2, which significantly below its target for the day of 196,000 mt, according to information posted on the website of the Dalrymple Bay coal chain coordinator.

As a result of the lower-than-expected deliveries of coal exports, the Dalrymple Bay coal terminal is currently operating at around 50% of capacity, said Smith.

--Mike Cooper, michael_cooper@platts.com

Similar stories appear in International Coal Report. See more information at http://www.platts.com/Products/internationalcoalreport