<p>Babcock and Brown Infrastructure (BBI) reported losses yesterday (Tuesday, February 26) in its half of year business statement for 2008.</p> <p>BBI, the owner of the giant Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal (DBCT) in northern Queensland reported to the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) a net loss of $14.6m in the six months ending December 31, compared with a profit of $23.4m for the same period a year earlier.</p> <p>The losses were reported amid the heavy weeks of rain and adverse weather conditions in Queensland, which had slowed progress on DBCT’s phase one upgrade, caused many mines in the area to shut down and had extended the queue of bulk carriers to 33.</p> <p>“We lost four days over the weekend due to the rains,” DBCT general manager Greg Smith said.</p> <p>“The expected finishing date for the upgrades is now scheduled for March 4.”</p> <p>Mr Smith said the diminishing stockpiles of coal were also a worry.</p> <p>“Right now we’ve only got around 400,000 tonnes of coal,” he said.</p> <p>“That’s about mid range, good for about five ships.</p> <p>“Our usual capacity is for around 700,000 to 800,000 tonnes.”</p> <p>Mr Smith expected the terminal’s output to exceed its input soon if coal deliveries were not improved dramatically.</p> <p>“There are 33 vessels waiting to be loaded at the moment,” he said.</p> <p>“That’s 20 we can act on and 13 that are still waiting for coal to come out of the mine – 13 vessels that don’t have any coal to load.”</p> <p>The Queensland Resources Council (QRC) described the affect of heavy rains on reducing coal mines as a state-wide epidemic.</p> <p>“There’s not a coal mine in the state that hasn’t been affected from the floods – from the north to as far south as the Surat Basin,” QRC representative Jim Devine said.</p> <p>Mr Devine was unable to comment on individual miners but with BHP Billition declaring <em>force majeure</em> on many of its contracts and a 3.7m-4.6m tonne loss of production it remained uncertain when coal production in Queensland would return to full capacity.</p> <br />