Newcastle Port Corporation News

Australia's NSW government will go ahead with the long-term lease of the Port of Newcastle, the world’s biggest coal export location by annual capacity for a reported figure of around $700m, reports the Australian Journal of Mining. A long-term lease of the port would include over 700 hectares of land owned by the Newcastle Port Corporation, as well as all road and rail infrastructure wharves owned by NPC within the port boundary. Newcastle will be the third major NSW port privatised in recent times; Port Botany and Port Kembla were both privatised at the beginning of 2013.

Port authorities are unable to predict how long it will take to refloat the 40,000 ton coal ship Pasha Bulker, stranded off a Newcastle beach, according to the West Australian. A Newcastle Port Corporation spokesman said the situation would be clearer once the 20-man salvage team, which spent its fifth day aboard the grounded bulk carrier, completed its detailed plan. Equipment to contain an oil spill was being moved from Newcastle port to a holding area in a carpark at Nobby's Beach, where it can be moved quickly in the event of a fuel leak from the ship, which has been wedged on a sandbar since Friday. The team has found a breach in the vessel's outer hull but a secondary inner hull remains intact.