All three coal export terminals were shut down during the protest action which started at 5:30am on Sunday.

By 3pm the protest was over with 41 activists arrested.

Four of the protestors managed to lock themselves to ship-loading machinery, with some activists using abseiling gear.

Police rescuers were forced to use cranes to access protesters who were hanging from cables at the top of the Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group terminal.

Despite the impact to normal loading operations at the port, HVCC’s weekly performance report on Monday revealed that throughput from NCIG and Port Waratah Coal Services was 186.1 tonnes short of declared inbound throughput for the week, including Sunday.

The throughput of 2137.6t was about 8% lower than the total declared inbound throughput for the week.

HVCC said there were 43 vessels in the offshore queue at the end of the week and 18 were classed as “dead” due to coal availability issues.

Nine of the protesters will face court next month, according to the ABC.