Newcastle Port News

Towage provider Svitzer has selected Kongsberg Digital to deliver new simulators in support of crew training at its Port of Newcastle base in Australia. The contract with Kongsberg will help create a training center of excellence for the deployment of Svitzer’s new TRAnsverse tug vessels entering service in Newcastle in early 2025.The contract comprises the delivery of a training suite in Q2 2024. The delivery encompasses a full-mission 360° K-Sim Navigation simulator configured as a tug bridge, and a part-task 180° K-Sim Navigation ship’s bridge simulator.

China's coal imports in April surged 22% from a year earlier, as traders scrambled to snap up low-cost coal from the seaborne market amid plunging demand for the fuel worldwide because of the coronavirus pandemic.The world's largest coal buyer imported 30.95 million tonnes of coal last month, according to the official data from the General Administration of Customs released on Thursday.That compares to 27.83 million tonnes imported in March and 25.3 million tonnes in April 2019.Imports over the January to April period jumped 26.9% to 126.73 million tonnes, customs said.

The coronavirus pandemic has finally caught up with seaborne thermal coal in Asia, as soft demand in major importers India and China sends prices to multi-year lows and dents the polluting fuel's relative outperformance against other energy.The price of low-energy coal from Indonesia, the world's top exporter of thermal coal, has dropped to the lowest since assessments were started by commodity price reporting agency Argus in 2008, while higher-quality Australian supplies have slumped to a four-year low.Indonesian coal with an energy value of 4…

New South Wales Government is considering a proposal for a $590 million liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal in the Port of Newcastle, with the project given critical state significance.Under the prosposal, the terminal will be built at Kooragang Island in Newcastle Port and promises to supply NSW with up to 80 per cent of its gas requirements.The Newcastle GasDock project - with an estimated direct onshore investment of up to AUD$250M at the Port - today received Critical State Significant Infrastructure (CSSI) status from NSW Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, the Hon Rob Stokes MP.The announcement by Acting Premier John Barilaro and Mr Stokes recognises the need to significantly increase local gas supply…

Port of Newcastle has become the first port in Australia or New Zealand to commit to meeting global environmental and sustainability standards as set by EcoPorts.The port was this month granted membership of the International EcoPorts network, having completed rigorous assessments to benchmark its environmental and sustainability practices against 120 major ports across Europe, Asia, North America and South America.Developed in 1997, EcoPorts remains the only Environmental Management Standard (EMS) specific to the global port sector.Port of Newcastle environmental adviser Jackie Spiteri said the organisation had chosen to be a pioneer…

Babcock Australasia announced it has been awarded a further contract for helicopter marine pilot transfer services at the Newcastle Port, following a competitive tender process.Under the contract, Babcock will provide aircraft, pilots, engineering personnel and maintenance staff to ensure the safe transportation of marine pilots to ships located 3 to 8 nautical miles offshore. This continues the services that Babcock has provided at the Port since 1999.“This new contract reinforces…

Damen Shipyards Group has delivered a new ASD Tug 3212, Svitzer Glenrock, as the second part of a two-vessel order placed by Svitzer Australia.The tug sailed on its own keel from Damen Song Cam Shipyard, Vietnam to Newcastle, NSW, where it will work in the world’s busiest coal port, handling Cape-class bulk carriers and petroleum tankers as they enter and leave the confines of the harbor.Svitzer operates one of Australia’s largest fleets of tugs, comprised of more than 85 vessels.

A sure sign that China is struggling with its planned switch to natural gas from coal for winter heating is the spot price of Australian coal climbing back above $100 a tonne. Spot cargoes of thermal coal from Australia's Newcastle port , an Asian benchmark for the fuel used mainly in power plants, rose to $100.65 a tonne on Wednesday, breaching the triple-figure barrier for the first time since Nov. 1 and hitting their highest since mid-September. The price is also 9.2 percent higher than a recent low of $92.20 touched on Nov. 23 as the market responds to signs that Beijing is relaxing its anti-coal stance due to the scarcity of natural gas and the sharply higher prices for the cleaner-burning fuel that is available.

There are indications that China's appetite for imported coal may be starting to ease in line with Beijing's efforts to limit the use of the fuel over winter in a bid to lower air pollution. China's seaborne imports were 18.26 million tonnes in November, down from 20 million in October, according to vessel-tracking and port data compiled by Thomson Reuters Supply Chain and Commodity Forecasts. It's the fourth consecutive monthly decline for seaborne coal imports, according to the data, and it comes as the authorities impose productions cuts on coal-consuming industries such as steel. The vessel-tracking data doesn't align exactly with official customs data given it excludes coal that is imported by rail or road…

China has thrown the world's commodity producers and traders a massive party in the last few months, as evidenced by robust figures for November's imports of crude oil, iron ore and coal among others. But as all partygoers know, sooner or later the festivities come to an end, and the longer the party continues the more severe the hangover tends to be. China imports of iron ore jumped to the third highest on record, with November's 91.98 million tonnes up 13.8 percent from the previous month, taking the year-to-date gain to 9.2 percent compared with the same period in 2015. Coal imports of 26.97 million tonnes were the most in 18 months, and were more than double the imports recorded in November last year, according to preliminary Chinese customs data.

Coal mining giant Glencore has now applied to have the competition watchdog oversee pricing in the  newly privatised Port of Newcastle, reports  The Sydney Morning Herald. The NSW port is hiking some shipping charges up to 60 percent after its $1.75 billion privatisation last year. Glencore has made the application to the National Competition Council, describing the shipping channels in the Port of Newcastle as a natural 'bottleneck' monopoly. This pitch for Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) protection comes as management of Victoria's Port of Melbourne stares down a similar threat of declaration under national competition law…

Australia's Newcastle port, the world's biggest marine coal export terminal, will reopen later on Thursday after shutting down earlier this week due to a heavy storm, according to the port. Australia's biggest coal companies, including BHP Billiton Ltd , Glencore Plc, Rio Tinto , Peabody Energy Corp and China's Yancoal Australia Ltd rely on the port. (Reporting by Sonali Paul

Coal port shut since Monday night; seven coal ships waiting to leave, ship queue undisclosed. MELBOURNE, April 22 (Reuters) - Australia's Newcastle port, the world's biggest coal export port, has stopped all ship movements due to a cyclonic storm lashing the country's east coast, a port spokeswoman said on Wednesday. "Due to the weather event, no shipping movements occurred yesterday and port operations also paused," the spokeswoman said. Seven coal ships are waiting to leave the port, four from terminals operated by Port Waratah Coal Services and three from a terminal run by Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group (NCIG). The port operators declined to comment on how many coal ships were waiting offshore to pick up their cargoes from the port…

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and Hermes Infrastructure are prepared to buy a 30 percent stake in Associated British Ports for about 1.6 billion pounds ($2.4 billion). Associated British Ports is Britain's leading port operator, with 21 ports in England, Scotland and Wales. The deal will allow the Hermes-CPPIB consortium to acquire a further 3.33 percent in the company, depending upon pre-emption rights, the buyers said in a statement on Tuesday. Infrastructure assets are attractive to institutions like pension funds because of the long-term investment opportunity and stable returns that they represent. Hermes Infrastructure, part of British-based fund Hermes Investment Management, and CPPIB will buy the stake from GS Infrastructure Partners and Infracapital.

Express Global Logistics Pvt Ltd., performed another outstanding job by ship chartering, safe and timely loading, survey and Ocean Transportation of 130 Mt x 1 cable Reel on M.V. ABIS DUSAVIK from Newcastle Port U.K to Mina Zayed Port, Abu Dhabi. The vessel commendably stowed a 541 CBM on lower hold/under deck. The reel weighted up to 130 MT & measurements of up to 9.40 X 6.128 X 9.40 (Mtrs). It is destined for Oil and Gas Project in the Abu Dhabi. Last December, EXG had carried 2 Reels 284 MT each & measurements of up to 9.38 X 5.91 X 9.20 (Mtrs). They were destined for 3 Well Head Platform Project in the Abu Dhabi. Like last time,the said movement was also absolutely critical and time bound.

Hastings Funds Management and China Merchants Group have won a state government auction for a 98-year lease on Australia's Port of Newcastle, the world's biggest coal export terminal, paying a higher-than-expected A$1.75 billion ($1.6 billion). An initial New South Wales state budget plan had valued the lease on the port terminal at A$700 million, but fierce competition for Australian infrastructure assets coming on to market has seen a steady rise in multiples paid. The winning bid for Newcastle port came in at 27 times earnings, matching the 27 times earnings Transurban Group, Australia's biggest toll road owner, paid last week for a Queensland state toll road firm.

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.