News in Brief – 17-23 February 2010

First coal arrives at Newcastle's newest terminal
By Sam Collyer
A lone QR bulk freight train delivered about 7000 tonnes of coal to the port of Newcastle's newest export terminal on February 17th, more than two months out from the expected first export shipment.
The full load, from Peabody Energy's open-cut Wilpinjong mine, will be used to form the base of the stockpiles ahead of the first delivery of export coal in March.
The train movement was also used as an operational test of the rail loop, dump station, conveyors and stackers.
The $1bn Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group (NCIG) terminal is owned by coal companies BHP Billiton, Peabody, Centennial, Donaldson, Felix and Whitehaven.
NCIG hopes to load the first ships in May and increase annualised export volumes to 30m tonnes by the end of the calendar year.
The terminal has approval to expand to 66mtpa in the future.
Lloyd’s List Daily Commercial News – www.lloydslistdcn.com.au

Miners give thumbs up to Oakajee
By Sineva Toevai
Oakajee Port & Rail received a strong level of interest from Mid-West miners wanting to participate in the first round of exports from the proposed port.
Expressions of interest from the miners, which forms part of OPR's feasibility studies, exceeded the port's stage 1 capacity of 35m tonnes a year.
OPR chief executive John Langoulant said he was pleased with the level of demand. “This takes the project to a new level of confidence in terms of economic viability,” Langoulant said.
“It also demonstrates that there is potential to expand the project beyond its initial stage 1 capacity.”
Several miners have already expressed an interest in the port's stage 2 export capacity, he said.
OPR is currently conducting detailed analysis of the tonnage nominations to determine the composition of the allocation of stage 1 export tonnages.
The port project is due to start in 2013.
Lloyd’s List Daily Commercial News – www.lloydslistdcn.com.au

World Bank and UIC join forces for rail in developing countries
The world bank has reportedly partnered with the International Union of Railways (UIC) to develop and undertake initiatives benefitting the rail sector in developing countries.
An MOU signed on February 11th for the two groups to share knowledge, lessons learned, information and data for the sector will address rail freight transportation, public transport services and energy efficiency.
The partnership is with World Bank’s Safe, Clean and Affordable...Transport for Development strategy that proposes to continue the Bank Group’s significant lending for railway projects.
The MOU also identifies areas for possible future  collaboration between World Bank and UIC including developing multidiscipline training programs, addressing the changing environment of railway restructuring and upgrading technology ,and carrying out traffic flow studies to identify major railway corridors around the world.