Premier Peter Beattie says he does not believe jobs will be lost because of a worsening bottleneck at Queensland's biggest coal port.

 

South Korean steelmaking company Posco, which spends more than $1.22 billion on Queensland coal, told The Australian newspaper it was developing other overseas contacts because of costly delays and unreliable deliveries by the state-owned railway.

 

Posco said it had written to Deputy Premier Anna Bligh in late February and directly lobbied Mr Beattie on his trade mission to Seoul this month to resolve the crisis, but had heard nothing since.

 

As a result, the company has been pursuing alternative coal suppliers in countries such as Mongolia, Russia, Mozambique and Indonesia.

 

From Seoul Posco executive vice-president YT Kwon told the newspaper that he was concerned the delays were mostly due to Queensland Rail (QR) and its "overly bureaucratic" approach to the crisis.

 

"Frankly, Queensland is the very worst of our suppliers (throughout the world) right now," he said.

 

Mr Beattie said the government had appointed a negotiator to talk to the coal companies, but he did not believe job losses were likely.

 

"I don't think that's going to happen," Mr Beattie told ABC Radio.

 

"Inevitably people do a bit of chest thumping whenever they want things improved.

 

"As a result of (discussions) we have come back ... and appointed a negotiator to try and resolve some of these matters between Queensland Rail and the coal companies."

 

Mr Beattie said the issue of bottlenecks could have been handled better, but no one had anticipated the massive growth in demand for coal, especially from China.

 

Meanwhile it has been proposed that around nine million tonnes of coking coal could be shipped from the Mackay Port to help ease current bottlenecks at Dalrymple Bay.

 

Foxleigh Mining is reported to have approached QR to investigate the feasibility of using the Mackay Port as an additional outlet.

 

QR's acting chief executive, Stephen Cantwell, says a study undertaken 18 months ago for a similar project found costs would be close to $100 million to upgrade the main track into the current grain terminal area.

 

That project was abandoned but Mr Cantwell has confirmed QR have met with Foxleigh to discuss the issue and has not ruled out the project.