Anti-coal canoeists disrupt Newcastle port coal shipments in November

New data released Wednesday morning by the Port of Newcastle show that the volume of all types of coal shipped through the port dropped to 12.63 million tonnes last month, lower by a large 6.8% from October.

Newcastle handles roughly 70% of Australia's thermal coal exports, with major destinations including Japan, China, South Korea, and some Southeast Asian countries. The latest government statistics show that between January and August this year, China was by far the largest customer of coal shipped through Newcastle, taking 26.62 million tonnes of coal of which only 130,300 tonnes was coking coal and the rest thermal coal. The eight-month total for China was lower by 5.8% from January-August last year.

Despite the disruptions caused by the protests, coal throughput via Newcastle port in November was still higher by 0.6% from the previous year, the port data showed. During January-November, cumulative coal exports shipped from the port totalled 133.79 million tonnes, down 1% from the corresponding months of last year.

Over November 27-December 2, Australian climate activist group Rising Tide had held an anti-coal protest in Newcastle and as part of the action, thousands of activists paddled into the shipping lane on November 29-30 and blocked three inbound ships, including two coal ships, according to ABC News.

The two coal ships, Ragnar with a capacity of 85,000 tonnes and Cemtex Leader with a capacity of around 95,000 tonnes, were scheduled to deliver high-calorific value thermal coal to buyers in Taiwan and Japan respectively, according to market sources.

Meanwhile, a third 81,000-tonne carrier, Yangze 16, was also delayed when it tried to enter Newcastle port on November 30, as two activists from another group, Greenpeace Australia Pacific, secured themselves to the ship for seven hours, the climate group reported. Yangze 16 was slated to load thermal coal and was bound for Malaysia, sources noted.

These involved ships all resumed operations after the protests, Australian media reported.

Written by Adrian Zhou, zhouwenhaoa@mysteel.com

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