World's Biggest Coal Export Terminal (Oz) Cuts Number Of Ships In Line

Another surge in the price of coal is feared after the operator of the world’s biggest coal export terminal cut the number of ships permitted to load at the port of Newcastle in Australia.

Queues at the port, which exports coal from the Hunter Valley mines, reached a peak of 79 vessels in the summer as Asian power producers scrambled to fill up in anticipation of coal shortages this winter. To reduce congestion, last week the port operator cut export allocations for the fourth quarter of this year by two million tonnes.

The price of coal in Europe has risen by 50 per cent this year, bearing down on the profit margins of big coal users, such as cement-makers and power generators. Over the past year the share price of Drax, owner of Britain’s biggest coal-fired electricity generator, has fallen from a high of 929p in August last year to 615p. In Europe, a spot cargo of South African coal was reported to have changed hands at $115 per tonne as a European utilty sought to make good a delayed shipment. “So many utilities and cement companies are looking,” one trader said. “They will pay, but they are desperate that no one finds out.”

Meanwhile, Japanese and Chinese utilities are scrambling to secure supplies. Last week, several Japanese power companies agreed to pay an Australian mining unit of Peabody Energy $68 per tonne for fourth-quarter coal, a 25 per cent increase on the price in the early part of the year.

EDIT

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article2609726.ece

though of course, almost no rise will be enough to bring the real price of production and use in line with coal's tremendous externalities.

coal, is not like petroleum.

there are lots of unexploited deposits of coal

Will render the planet uninhabitable for anyone or anything. We're really racing down to that cliff aren't we?

We heard all sorts of happy face talk about the Japanese earthquake that spilled a little radioactive water, killing no one, but raising a doped up round of fury from our Amory Lovins types.

Where are they now?

Let me guess. They couldn't care less about Japan burning coal while it repairs the reactor, just like they don't give a flying fuck about Germany's plan to burn South African coal to replace its nuclear plants.

The difference between the Japanese shutdown and the German shutdown is that the latter is the result of anti-nuke ignorance and stupidity and a big, big, big, big, big, big payoff to the paid off and bought off anti-nuke Gerhard Schroeder.