Dalrymple Bay boasts a long queue of coal waiting to get out
Coal port Dalrymple Bay Infrastructure has reported a net profit of $113 million half year profit and said there was now a long queue of coal waiting to get out of Queensland.
The Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal.. Image; Supplied
The profit was based on revenue of $219.7 million. It will pay a second quarter distribution of 4.5 cents per security and said it was likely to deliver a full year distribution of 18 cents a security.
The company, which was spun out of Brookfield and now has the State Government as as major shareholder, highlighted that it was now free to negotiate access charges with customers after a ruling earlier this by the Queensland Competition Authority.
But it added there was now an access queue of 25 million tonnes of coal from prospective expansions or new mines wanting to export through the port, near Bowen.
The company has already started a feasibility study into a $1.3 billion expansion to give it a capacity of 99 million tonnes. That study was expected to be completed next year.
It received a further QCA draft ruling this week that the access charges for the planned expansion would be “socialised”, which means it would be treated in the same manner as the existing port. Dalrymple Bay said that was in line with its expectations.
Despite the bans on Australian coal by China there is still strong global demand and prices have cracked $US200 a tonne for metallurgical coal recently.
The terminal shipped 25 million tonnes for the first half year of which 82 per cent was metallurgical coal used in steel making.