The Goonyella coal rail system in Queensland Australia, which connects the world's largest metallurgical coal supply basin carrying prized Australian premium coking coal and PCI materials, has reopened after being closed in late March due to impact from Tropical Cyclone Debbie, operator Aurizon said Wednesday.
The system resumed operations at 10:30 am local time (0030 GMT) and is working under restricted conditions with some reduced capacity, Aurizon said.
Goonyella was the last of Aurizon's four systems in the Central Queensland Coal Network to reopen.
The Blackwater and Moura coal systems reopened to connect mines to Gladstone port on April 10 and April 12, respectively, while the Newlands coal system, which connects mines to the Abbot Point Coal Terminal, resumed operations on April 13.
Goonyella's reopening will allow mines access to the Hay Point and Dalrymple Bay coal terminals.
At midday, there remained no ships listed as loading coal at the Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal, while there were 28 at anchor, DBCT Management shipping information showed.
The expected impact to above rail coal volumes affected by Tropical Cyclone Debbie and associated flooding is expected to be 12 million mt-14 million mt, which has caused Aurizon to lower its fiscal 2016-2017 (July-June) tonnage guidance to 190 million mt-200 million mt, down from 200 million mt-212 million mt, the operator said. AURIZON'S JAN-MAR COAL VOLUMES FALL 2% YEAR ON YEAR
Aurizon's above rail coal volumes over January-March were 48.4 million mt, down 2% or 1 million mt year on year, and were lower by 7% from 52.3 million mt in October-December, the company said in its quarterly results Wednesday.
The small year-on-year fall came as the impact from the cyclone was somewhat offset by strong growth in New South Wales, it said.
March quarter Queensland volumes were down 5%, or 1.9 million mt, from the same period in 2016, at 36.9 million mt, mainly due to lower volumes from Goonyella, which fell 1.5 million mt, and Newlands, where volumes fell 600,000 mt, it said.
In New South Wales, volumes during January-March of 11.5 million mt showed an 8%, or 900,000 mt, increase year on year, due to the new short-term Glencore volumes, expansion volumes for the Whitehaven contract and improved demand from a key customer, it said.
