Coal shipments from Australia's Newcastle port, the world's biggest export harbor for the fuel used in power stations, fell 24 percent last week while the number of vessels waiting to load declined.

The volume exported in the week ended 7 a.m. local time Mar 22 dropped to 1.11 million metric tonnes from 1.46 million tonnes in the preceding period, Newcastle Port Corp. said on its Web site. Rio Tinto Group, Xstrata Plc and BHP Billiton Ltd. are among mining companies that ship the fuel from the harbor.

Fifty vessels, waiting to load 3.94 million tonnes of coal, were outside the harbor, from 55 a week earlier. The queue reached 60 in December, the longest since July 2007.

Coal ships waited to load for an average of 15.64 days, from 16.35 days a week earlier, Newcastle Port said. That compares with 0.13 day for general-cargo vessels.

Power-station Coal prices at Newcastle, an Asian benchmark, rose 1.2 percent last week, according to the globalCOAL NEWC Index. Prices gained $1.12 to $95.04 a ton in the week ended March 19.
 

Source: en.sxcoal.com