In the week ended February 18, coal shipments from the Port of Newcastle in Queensland, the coal producing state of Australia, totaled 1.8 million mt, according to Newcastle Port Corporation. The figure constitutes a decrease of 38.7 percent compared to the 3 million mt of coal shipments recorded in the previous week, following a week-on-week increase of 23 percent recorded in the week ended February 11.
In the period of February 1-18, Newcastle port exported 6.6 million mt of thermal and coking coal, while the port authority forecasts that Newcastle port will ship a total of 11 million mt for the whole of February. In February 2012, Newcastle port exported almost 10 million mt of thermal and coking coal.
Anglo American, Peabody Energy, Rio Tinto and Xstrata are some of the larger exporters to ship coal from Newcastle port.