In the week ended January 21, coal shipments from the Port of Newcastle in Queensland, the coal producing state of Australia, totaled 2.8 million mt, according to Newcastle Port Corporation. The figure constitutes a decrease of 10.2 percent compared to the 3.1 million mt of coal shipments recorded in the week ended January 14, which in turn represented a week-on-week decrease of 2.3 percent. The coal exports from the port have recorded week-on-week decreases since the beginning of January.

In the period of January 1-21, Newcastle port exported 8.8 million mt of thermal and coking coal, while the port authority forecasts that Newcastle port will ship a total of 11.7 million mt for the whole of January. However, in December last year Newcastle port exported 13.1 million mt of thermal and coking coal.

Anglo American, Peabody Energy, Rio Tinto and Xstrata are some of the larger exporters to ship coal from Newcastle port.