Richards Bay Coal Shipments Advanced 17% in March (Update1)

Thursday, April 8, 2010
By Carli Lourens

April 8 -- Richards Bay Coal Terminal, site of the continent's largest export terminal, shipped 17 percent more coal in March than a year earlier.

Shipments rose to 5.66 million metric tons of coal from 4.85 million tons a year earlier, the terminal said in an e- mailed statement today, without saying why. Stock at the terminal at month end was 3.35 million tons compared with 2.98 million tons in February.

The terminal is the biggest source for Europe of coal burned for power and is owned by South Africa's largest exporters of the fuel, including BHP Billiton Ltd., Anglo American Plc and Xstrata Plc.

Prices for coal shipped through the port increased 32 percent during the past year to an average of $83.85 a ton on April 2, according to data from Petersfield, England-based researcher McCloskey Group Ltd.

At last month's shipment rate, the Richards Bay terminal would ship 62.5 million tons coal this year, compared with its capacity of 91 million tons after the completion of an expansion this year. Shipments came to 61.14 million tons last year.

During March, 5.93 million tons of coal arrived at the port by rail compared with 5.19 million a year earlier. Sixty-three ships docked at the port and 811 trains arrived laden with coal during the month.

Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/04/08/bloomberg1376-L0JU3E1A74E9-2.DTL

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