CARGO throughput at the Port of Newcastle for July was the lowest total for this year, according to the latest available trade statistics from the port.
Total throughput at the port in June totalled 11.86 tonnes, a 20% decrease on June’s figures and 27% down on July 2019’s throughput.
Breaking June’s throughput down, the port handled 440,962 tonnes of imports, with the largest category being fuels (215,663 tonnes), followed by meals and grains (61,971 tonnes) and alumina (30,931 tonnes).
Coal was by far the port’s largest export for the month, with 11.3m tonnes exported, down 21% on June’s total of 14.3m tonnes. Despite the drop, the commodity still made up 96% of the port’s total monthly throughput by volume and 58% of the month’s total trade value for the month ($AU1667m).
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 (48,360 tonnes) and pitch and tar products (15,464 tonnes).
Concentrates exports were bound mostly for China while pitch and tar products made their way to Japan and The Philippines.
There were 164 vessel visits to Newcastle throughout July, with 130 of these visits (or 79%) being coal vessels. The remaining 34 vessels to call at the port were non-coal vessels.
