Australian floods hit coal exports

[miningmx.com] — MILITARY aircraft flew supplies to an Australian town slowly disappearing beneath floodwaters on Monday, as record flooding in the country’s northeast continues to cut coal exports.

Flooding covering an area greater than France and Germany combined has caused more than $980m in damage, forced thousands from their homes and hit the commodity exports that are a mainstay of the Australian economy.

“This is a major natural disaster and recovery will take a significant amount of time,” said Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

“The extent of flooding being experienced by Queensland is unprecedented and requires a national and united response,” said Gillard in announcing financial aid for flood victims.

Flooded open-pit coal mines and washed out rail lines in Queensland state have seen global miners including Anglo American and Rio Tinto declare force majeure and reduce coal exports to a trickle.

The major Queensland coal port of Dalrymple has resumed operations, but there were nearly 50 ships offshore waiting to be loaded, while the port of Gladstone was operating at a greatly reduced capacity.

“We have just under one million tonnes of coal stockpiled. We have a capacity of six million tonnes in our stockpile. We are running a very low stockpile,” Gladstone Ports Corporation spokeswoman Lee McIvor told Reuters.

Queensland’s ports have an annual coal export capacity of 225 million tonnes.

“There are probably about 18 ships waiting, and there probably will likely be more, because the demand for coal around the world is quite high,” said McIvor, adding it may take 10 days for a washed-out major rail link to the port to reopen.

Australia is the world’s biggest exporter of coking coal used for steel-making and accounts for about two-thirds of global trade. It is also the second-biggest exporter of thermal coal used for power generation.