Published in the May 2006 Australia's Mining Monthly
Abbott Point Coal Terminal, situated 25km north of Bowen on the central Queensland coast, has had its $116 million Stage 2 expansion approved. The move will see the port’s capacity increase from 15 million tonnes per annum to 21Mtpa.
The Ports Corporation of Queensland (PCQ), which manages Abbott Point, said last month it had commissioned an Environmental Impact Study for a possible Stage 3 expansion at that terminal, which would take its capacity to 50Mtpa.
Meantime, Queensland’s Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal (DBCT), near Mackay, has embarked on an $850 million upgrade under its owner-operators, Babcock & Brown. Under this plan, the terminal’s capacity will rise from approximately 50Mtpa to 85Mtpa.
Dalrymple Bay’s neighbouring terminal, Hay Point, exported 85.54Mt of coal in 2004-05, making it the world’s largest coal port. Now, Hay Point’s status is set to be boosted further when its operators, PCQ, begins one of the largest single dredging projects in the southern hemisphere.
The project will utilise the services of the WD Fairway, the largest dredge of its type in the world, resulting in a giant channel for bulk coal carriers departing the port.
PCQ chief executive Brad Fish said the $70 million project would see about 9 million cubic metres of material removed to allow most ships to be loaded to their maximum draft when leaving port.
In Gladstone, expansion projects being conducted by the Central Queensland Ports Authority at Barney Point and RG Tanna Coal Terminal, plus the long-term development plans for Wiggins Island, are steaming ahead. In the short term, these expansions will see an additional 25Mtpa of capacity online as early as February 2007.
Another upgrade being planned is at the Port of Newcastle. In August last year, the Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group (NCIG), led by coal majors BHP Billiton and Centennial Coal, was named by the New South Wales Government as the preferred developer and operator of a third coal loader for the port.
The tender was contested by short-listed groups NCIG and current Newcastle Port operator Port Waratah Coal Services, which is 49%-owned by majors Rio Tinto and Xstrata.
NCIG was formed last year to address rail and port capacity issues in the Hunter Valley. Group members include BHPB, Centennial Coal, Donaldson Coal, Excel Coal, Felix Resources (formerly White Mining), AMCI and Whitehaven Coal.
NCIG chairman and Excel Coal chief Tony Haggarty said he was pleased with the NSW Government’s decision, which would introduce competition at the port and address the long-term capacity of the Hunter Valley coal export supply chain.
The introduction of a new loader is expected to lift port export capability by at least 30Mtpa.
While capacity expansion is well underway at several major east coast ports, there is a significant lag time between when the new infrastructure is needed and when it is actually delivered.
One of the results of this lag has been a queue of ships anchored offshore waiting to load. During the March-to-April period last year, more than 50 ships were queued up off Mackay. Since then, this number has dropped significantly.
When Australia’s Mining Monthly contacted him recently, DBCT general manager of operations Greg Smith said there were 16 ships waiting to be loaded.
“When you look at the queue at DBCT, unfortunately we’ve always got a situation where at least some of the vessels are waiting for mine production,” Smith said. “That’s got to do with the fact that the terminal is based on a multi-user environment, and it services mines both above and below ground.
The underground mining environment can be slightly unpredictable at times. So one of the reasons we have a queue management system is so we’ve got a pool of vessels to draw from depending on how mines are producing.
“The other reason it’s slightly up is the combined effect of the two cyclones, Larry and Wati. The berths are 4km offshore, so they were subject to rather large swell, which restricted the loading operations,” Smith said.
“There’s an ample supply of coal to load onto the ships, it’s just a matter of being able to use all the berths. But it’s more the suitability of the ships. [In strong weather] we were concentrating on larger vessels, which have less of a tendency to slam up against the wharf and catch under the fender plates. For that last week, they were loading cape-size [vessels] only, and obviously that restricts your ability to maximise your quay time.”
Rebuffing media reports about the capacity of DBCT to handle increased demand, Smith said the large number of ships offshore in March-April last year was a result of a shift in coal price.
“In 2005, we had an increase in the contract prices for the new financial year, so many coal buyers were trying to get ships into a queue before March 31, 2005 to take advantage of the cheaper rates.”
Smith said the planned expansion of the Abbott Point terminal to 25Mtpa would have no impact on the demand for coal from DBCT, because Abbott Point would be catering specifically for the expansion of mines in the Newlands System, in the Bowen Basin in Central Queensland.
Whatever the reason, the fact remains east coast ports can’t move the coal quick enough.
On the rail side, the Queensland Rail Network is close to finalising its Rail Master Plan for the state. Speaking at the Mining Logistics & Supply Chain Management conference in Brisbane in December 2005, MacArthur Coal chief Ken Talbot said once the plan was agreed and approved by the Queensland Competition Authority, it would become the blueprint for coal rail development in the state for the next 10 years.
Talbot also...click here to read on.
