Ports in Western Australia's Pilbara region reopen after cyclone threat fades

Late last week local authorities had raised Zelia's intensity to a Category 5 system – the highest danger level – ahead of the cyclone making landfall on Australia's west coast on February 14. After being closed just weeks earlier due to Cyclone Sean, Port Hedland was ordered closed again from last Wednesday by Pilbara Ports Authority (PPA), as Mysteel Global reported. Hedland was reopened from late Saturday after Zelia passed over the region, according to the latest notice released by the PPA.

Meanwhile, two other ports in the Pilbara region operated by PPA, the ports of Dampier and Varanus Island, were also shut down on the evening of Thursday before resuming operations on Friday afternoon, the operator revealed.

Although Zelia was rated as the most severe storm to hit the Pilbara coast since Cyclone Ilsa in April 2023, no major damage has been reported in Port Hedland, Mysteel Global learned. "Pilbara Ports has undertaken inspections of navigation aids, channels and berths and has confirmed safe operations can resume," PPA said in the reopening announcement.

Australia is the world's largest shipper of iron ore, with a total of 568.7 million tonnes of iron ore exported to global destinations via Port Hedland - the top iron ore dispatch terminal in Australia - last year, as reported. The vast volumes of iron ore that Port Hedland handles are from major Australian miners including BHP Group and Fortescue Metals Group, while port of Dampier ships iron ore from Rio Tinto.

BHP and Fortescue separately confirmed that their Port Hedland operations had been paused for safety due to the storm, while a Fortescue spokesperson said the company is working to resume normal activities as quickly and safely as possible.

Rio Tinto declared in a Saturday news release that the company's port, rail and mine operations had resumed after Zelia had passed over. Although the miner reiterated that its first-quarter iron ore shipments would be affected by weather events, it still maintained the guidance for Pilbara iron ore shipments in 2025 unchanged at 323-338 million tonnes, Mysteel Global notes.

Written by Irene Zhuang, zhuangailing@mysteel.com

Edited by Russ McCulloch, russ.mcculloch@mysteel.com