Guangxi is now China's largest coal importer

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

With implications for Australian coal companies, ports in China's southwestern Guangxi Zhuang region surpassed their counterparts in neighboring Guangdong province to become the largest throughput of coal imports in 2011.

Ports in Guangxi recorded a total throughput of over 27 million tonnes of coal in 2011, up 61.3 percent over the previous year and accounting for 15 percent of China's total.

Guangxi is not known as a coal production region. With increasing demand for power from local industrial users, coal imports have grown significantly, as the region struggles to meet capacity through hydropower.

China's largest coal producer, China Shenhua Group Co. Ltd., signed an agreement with the Guangxi regional government late last year to build Asia's largest thermal power project in Beihai city.

It will boast eight power generators with a capacity of one million kw each in five years.

Zhang Xiwu, chairman of Shenhua, said Guangxi lacks coal mines but has deep-water ports.

To ensure industry's supply of raw materials, Guangxi needs to build four docks with a handling capacity of 100,000 tonnes each to allow Shenhua's cargo ships to unload coal sent from the company's mines in Indonesia and Australia.

Guangxi's coal was mainly imported from Vietnam, Indonesia and Australia last year. The province's imports from Vietnam jumped by 42.8 percent in 2011 to 11.7 million tonnes.

Vietnam's rise was significant and the import surge was attributed to the price advantage of Vietnam's coal.

(sourced Proactiveinvestors.com.au)

Coal handling loss at Chennai port

Sunday, 22 Jan 2012

Chennai port's loss was Ennore port's gain with coal handling moving away from Chennai to Ennore in the last nine months. This was the most significant trend observed in cargo handling among the country's major ports in the first nine months of the current financial year a period which witnessed a flat growth rate in cargo traffic when compared to previous year.

The country's major ports managed a 0.38% increase in cargo handling to 418 million tonne from April to December 2011 when compared to 416 million tonne in the same period last year.

A Chennai Port Trust official said that a 19.44% drop in iron ore handling was one of the main reasons for the flat growth. The ban on exports of iron ore by the Karnataka Government continues to bother ports such as Chennai.

The shift in coal to Ennore also coincides with the order of the Madras High Court to shift coal to Ennore from Chennai last year.

The Ennore port handled an additional 2.4 million tonne of thermal coal in the first nine months when compared with the same period last year. Similarly, the port handled 251,000 tonne of coking coal while it was nil in the previous year.

According to the latest data by the Indian Ports Association, on the contrary, the Chennai port lost nearly 400,000 tonne of thermal coal in the first nine months and nearly 140,000 tonne of coking coal.

Due to the 38% increase in handling of thermal coal, the Ennore port recorded the highest growth rate among all the ports of 42.69%.

On the other hand, the Chennai port suffered 8.35% decline in cargo handling due to drop in poor coal handling in the period under review.

(Sourced from BL)

SDIC Jingtang port coal handling slips

Feb 12,2011

Coal handled at Jingtang port amounted to 704,600 tonnes in the week from Feb 1 to 7, sources learnt from Qinhuangdao Seaborne Coal Market.

The volume handled was a decrease of 110,000 tonnes or 13.5 percent from a previous week, averaging 100,600 tonnes each day, statistics showed.

Coal transported to the port by railway increased 12,100 tonnes or 1.39 percent from a week before to 949,700 tonnes, averaging 135,600 tonnes per day, according to the coal portal.

Vessels waiting off the port for loading were 104, 56 expected, and an average of 14 vessels was loaded, with 8 expected, it added.

Daily coal stockpiled at Jingtang port averaged 1.58 million tonnes, growing 61,400 tonnes from a week ago.

As of Feb 7, Jingtang port had 1.68 million tonnes coal in stock.
(sourced:en.sxcoal.com)