Australia's thermal coal exports will be cut more deeply than expected by the storms last weekend, a coal export body said on Thursday, as prices scaled to new peaks.
Some Asian importers played down the impact of losing as much as 3 million tonnes of supplies from the world's second-largest exporter, although other traders said regional utilities may be forced to seek South African material, lifting prices there.
Following rail damage and the temporary closure of the port after heavy rains and flooding in the key mining region, export coordinator Hunter Valley Coal Chain Logistics Team revised up its initial estimate of 2 million tonnes of lost supplies.
"It will be less than 3 million and more than 2 million," Anthony Pitt, general manager of the group, told Reuters.
He said that 700,000 tonnes of coal stockpiled at the port were only enough to last for one day's loading of vessels on Thursday, which resumed on Tuesday afternoon and continued through Wednesday.
Rail lines had been damaged by the storm but a limited resumption of train services would begin later on Thursday, he said.
Disruption of coal shipments through Newcastle, caused by heavy seas and torrential rain in storms that began a week ago, have sent global coal prices rocketing, with Australian thermal coal hitting a record of $65.00 a tonne, free-on-board Newcastle, on Wednesday.
A more prompt August-loading parcel traded at $64 a tonne on the globalCOAL platform on Thursday.
Rio Tinto's 75 percent-owned subsidiary Coal & Allied Industries declared force majeure late on Wednesday, joining BHP Billiton Plc./Ltd. and Swiss-based Xstrata Plc. , the other main coal exporters through Newcastle port.
Coal rail and loading operations at the port should return to near-normal in about a week, depending on the weather and if more problems were identified, he said.
UTILITIES KEEP COOL
The storm closed loading operations at Newcastle port, which exports around 100 million tonnes of thermal coal a year to Asian power stations, mainly in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, where some buyers were keeping a cool head.
"I can't say that there's no impact but it is not critical," said a source with one of the company's utilities.
"Most of the generators have secured enough volumes for now, so South Korean generators won't be too influenced by the disruption."
A source at government-run Taiwan Power Co., which gets a quarter of its imports from Australia, said its stocks were high.
"The government requires that we maintain 30-days reserve worth, but we maintain 45 days. So basically the impact won't be that large," the source told Reuters.
The storm played havoc with 55 ships queued off the port, driving the 225-metre (738 ft) bulk coal carrier Pasha Bulker onto a local beach, where it remained stranded on Thursday.
The vessel had been scheduled to load 58,000 tonnes of Rio Tinto Plc./Ltd. coal for export to a Japanese power utility.
Pitt, head of a logistics organisation made up of all rail, loading and port organisations involved in exporting Hunter Valley coal through Newcastle, said a tentative rail programme would begin on Thursday afternoon with a "very limited service".
"Hopefully on Saturday we'll be at about 50 percent of our normal capacity and then progressively between then and late next week, it should come back to full capacity," he said.
Full capacity is about 95 million tonnes a year, or about 260,000 to 270,000 tonnes a day, in a rail network covering 350 km (220 miles) and servicing 30 coal mines.
Rail lines have been damaged by floodwaters, which washed away track supports and embankments.
Two vessels berthed on Wednesday and Thursday would be loaded from the stockpile at the port, while other loadings would be completed, Pitt said.
After this, deliveries by rail would be needed for subsequent loadings of cargoes typically between 60,000 and 120,000 tonnes, he said.
More heavy rain is forecast for coming days.
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