Coal exports from Australia's Port of Newcastle are set to resume this week after a violent storm last week washed away or blocked rail lines to the port. But the reduced output will continue to support prices, analysts said.
The Hunter Valley Coal Chain Logistics Team, or HVCCLT, which operates the rail and port export chain for coal from the region, said coal trains would begin moving again Thursday evening.
The three biggest miners in the region -- BHP Billiton Ltd., Rio Tinto Ltd. subsidiary Coal & Allied Ltd., and Xstrata PLC -- all invoked a natural disaster clause in supply contracts this week called force majeure to free themselves of liability for delayed shipments.
"We will be running very limited programs this evening and tomorrow to get the trains out and test the track and then we will gradually see a return to service over the next week to 10 days," said Anthony Pitt, general manager of HVCCLT.
"We hope to be running about a 50 percent program, come the weekend, and then gradually increase it from there," he said.
HVCCLT originally estimated destruction to the rail and port network by last week's storm could lead to 2 million metric tons of lost coal shipments.
Pitt said that number is likely to rise.
The lost exports from Hunter Valley are likely to keep coal prices supported for another two weeks, said a senior consultant at Barlow Junker, the coal consultancy.
Before the storm, spot coal prices stood at US$55 (euro41.39) a metric ton. They have risen to US$60 (euro45.16) a ton.
Port Waratah at Newcastle is the world's biggest coal export port by volume and has long been an infrastructure bottleneck.
Expansions to the port and a new capacity balancing system had been expected to see the queue of ships waiting to load drop to 20 vessels by the end of July.
But the Port Waratah Coal Service, which runs the port, says that in the wake of the storm the vessel queue has grown to 67 ships and won't reduce back to 20 until August or September.
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