CARGO throughput at the Port of Newcastle for June was at its highest this year since March, according to the latest available trade statistics from the port.
Total throughput at the port in June totalled 14.81m tonnes, a 23% increase on May’s figures but was down on June 2019 throughput by 3%.
Breaking June’s throughput down, the port handled 434,170 tonnes of imports, with the largest category being alumina (121,523 tonnes), followed by fuels (94,075 tonnes) and fertiliser (57,423 tonnes).
It comes as no surprise that coal was by far the port’s largest export for the month, with 14.3m tonnes exported, accounting for almost all export tonnage.
The commodity made up 97% of the port’s total monthly throughput by volume and 61% of the month’s total trade value for the month ($AU1247m).
Export destinations for Newcastle’s coal output included Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Caledonia, Taiwan, Singapore and Vietnam.
Other exports of note included copper, zinc and lead ore concentrates (22,096 tonnes), and wheat (combined 13,904 tonnes).
Concentrates exports were bound mostly for China while wheat made its way to Japan, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia. There were 196 vessel visits to Newcastle over June, with 157 of these visits (or 75%) being coal vessels. The remaining 39 vessels to call at the port were non-coal vessels.
