Australia's environment ministry is to examine plans for a new A$1.2 billion export terminal in Queensland state capable of handling up to 22 million metric tons of coal annually.
Australia
's
environment ministry is to examine plans for a new A$1.2 billion export
terminal in
Queensland
state
capable of handling up to 22 million metric tons of coal annually.
Fitzroy Terminal Project Pty Ltd. is proposing to build a facility at Port Alma
that will use covered barges to shift coal from onshore stockpiles to ships
moored at sea, according to a filing posted Tuesday on the website of the
Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities.
The terminal at Port Alma, some 40 kilometers northwest of the major
coal-export
port
of
Gladstone
,
would have a 13-kilometer spur line connecting it to the main Blackwater and
Moura rail networks.
Key to the proposal is the use of transhipping technology--floating vessels
with conveyer belts--which would allow coal to be moved from barges to capesize
and panamax vessels anchored in deep water.
According to the filing, the benefits of using technology to load coal offshore
include a smaller land footprint for the terminal and minimal dredging of the
seabed close to shore. Also, the barges and transhipper can move out to sea
when bad weather, including cyclones, approaches.
"Barging is not a new concept, [but is] increasingly improving as an
effective mode of transport throughout the world," Fitzroy Terminal said
in its filing, citing examples in
Indonesia
,
Europe
and
North
America
.
Australia
is
the world's largest coal exporter, but infrastructure bottlenecks at ports have
led some analysts to predict that it could soon be overtaken by
Indonesia
. Capacity
restraints are crimping
Australia
's
ability to take advantage of rising demand in
North
Asia
for thermal coal used to generate power and coking coal, a key
ingredient in steelmaking.
Heavy investment is planned to open up new export routes and expand existing
ports, including a A$6.2 billion expansion of the
port
of
Abbot
Point
and the new Wiggins Island Coal Terminal in
Queensland
, but
these are several years away from completion.
According to closely held Mitchell Group Holdings, which acquired a controlling
interest in the Fitzroy Terminal project last year, the facility will be built
in two phases and it is targeted to start up in 2015.
Coal-handling capacity in the first phase stage would be limited to 10 million
tons, ramping up to around 22 million tons later.
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