Australia Newcastle coal exports jump 22 percent

PERTH: Coal exports from Australia's Newcastle port jumped 22 percent from the previous week to a six-week high, while the number of ships arriving at the port also held near its highest level since early November. Exports at the New South Wales port, the world's largest coal export terminal, rose to 2.09 million tonnes in the week to Dec. 22, port data on its website showed on Monday.

A total of 45 ships were waiting off the port to load 3.836 million tonnes of coal, the same number as the previous week. Four vessels were in the port loading 462,220 tonnes. About 80 percent of coal exported from the port used by firms such as the world's largest thermal coal exporter Xstrata Plc, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto is used by the power generation sector.