Hunter coal chain delays dig into Coal &amp&semicolan#38&semicolan Allied production

<p>Hunter Valley miner Coal &#38 Allied said capacity constraints through the port of Newcastle were to blame for a 12% fall in production during the first quarter compared with the same period last year.</p> <p>The Rio Tinto-owned company expects that the constrained production and sales will continue for the rest of 2007, as bulkers are now waiting almost 28 days to load coal.</p> <p>C&#38A today (Wednesday, April 18) reported falls in production at three of its four Hunter Valley sites, with an overall drop of 11% in production in the quarter-by-quarter breakdown.</p> <p>Port Waratah Coal Services (PWCS) said last week that its terminal capacity was higher than the rest of the coal chain, thanks to the phasing in of a $170m investment which will bring shiploading to 102mtpa.</p> <p>Despite record throughput at the port, at a rate of 85.4mtpa for the first quarter, coal producers are still reporting diminished results. </p> <p>C&#38A’s smallest operation, the 80% owned Mount Thorley operation, fared the worst, with a 32% fall in its thermal coal production (657,000 tonnes) and a 44% fall in semi-soft coking coal (163,000 tonnes).</p> <p>Thermal coal production from the company’s Hunter Valley operation remained strong, dropping only 2.9% to 2.32m tonnes for the quarter.</p> <p>But semi soft coal from that operation fell by 21% to 331,000 tonnes.</p> <p>The Bengalla mine went better, increasing thermal coal production by 21% to 1.3m for the quarter.</p> <p>Thermal coal from C&#38A’s 55.6% owned Warkworth mine fell to its lowest quarterly amount of the year &#8211 just 1.34m tonnes, 23% lower than the 1.76m tonnes produced in the first quarter of 2006.</p> <p>C&#38A said strong demand and the performance of the Hunter coal chain had resulted in continued vessel queuing.</p> <p>&#8220Coal &#38 Allied production in the quarter was aligned with allocated port capacity and sales levels were in line with the rate of sales achieved in the second half of 2006,&#8221 the company said.</p> <p>&#8220Based on Coal &#38 Allied’s 2007 allocated port capacity, it is anticipated that production and sales for the remainder of 2007 will be in line with production rates and sales levels achieved in the last two quarters.&#8221</p> <p>C&#38A’s fully-owned or part-owned coal mines produced more than 21.4m tonnes in 2006.</p> <br />