Perth (Platts)--13Nov2012/518 am EST/1018 GMT

Shipments of thermal and coking coal from the port of Newcastle in eastern Australia jumped 11.5% week on week to 3.1 million mt in the seven-day period to 7 am Sydney time Monday (2000 GMT Sunday), Newcastle Port Corp. said in its latest coal shipment report Tuesday.

Newcastle's exports last hit 3.1 million mt/week in the seven days to July 9, according to NPC data.

A total of 31 ships entered Newcastle to load coal cargoes at the port's three coal terminals last week, an increase on the 28 ships that loaded 2.78 million mt of coal exports in the preceding week to November 5.

Twenty-two ships sailed from the two Port Waratah Coal Services terminals at Newcastle last week. Ship-loading from the PWCS terminals was flat last week at 2.04 million mt from the week ended November 4, the Hunter Valley Coal Chain Coordinator said in a report Sunday.

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This implies the Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group terminal, which is operated by five coal companies, of which BHP Billiton and Yancoal Australia are the largest shareholders, accounted for most of last week's increase in Newcastle coal exports.

Figures on NCIG's coal throughput were not mentioned in the performance report issued by HVCCC, but were estimated by Platts to be around 1 million mt last week based on Newcastle and PWCS export data.

The NCIG terminal is relatively new, having officially opened in May 2010, and its capacity for coal exports increased to 53 million mt/year in mid-2012 from 33 million mt/year in its first stage.

The PWCS terminals missed their combined target for coal exports last week of 2.28 million mt by 233,000 mt, according to the HVCCC report.

Rail deliveries of coal exports to Newcastle's three coal terminals amounted to 2.72 million mt in the seven-day period to Sunday; deliveries to the NCIG terminal exceeded its target by 99,000 mt, while those to the PWCS terminals fell 229,000 mt short, HVCCC's report said.

Only seven ships were queuing to load coal exports from the PWCS terminals on Monday -- the lowest number of vessels for the calendar year to date -- and the number is expected to edge up again in the weeks ahead, the coal chain coordinator said in its report.

"The vessel queue is estimated to be 12 ships at the end of November based on producer forecasts [for ship arrivals] of 8.5 million mt and declared ship-loading of 8.3 million mt," HVCCC's report said.

A four-day shutdown of a large section of the Hunter Valley coal railway to Newcastle port for maintenance is planned over November 20-24, according to information posted on the HVCCC website.

Coal exports from Newcastle tend to dip during the port's quarterly rail maintenance shutdowns, as coal trains are unable to deliver fresh cargoes to shipping terminals, and port-side stocks become depleted.

--Mike Cooper, michael_cooper@platts.com
--Edited by Wendy Wells, wendy_wells@platts.com

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