Port authority North Queensland Bulk Ports has increased the scope of the Abbot Point coal export port in Australia to cater to higher demand from miners. The port authority will announce winning bidders to develop terminals 4 to 7 at the port in the second half of December.

But capacity at these terminals has been oversubscribed, prompting the port authority to add a further two terminals. Each terminal at the port has a maximum capacity of 60 million tonne per year but some are likely to only operate at 30 million tonne per year if they are shared between several users.

The bidding process for terminals 8 and 9 will run separately from the T4-7 process, but firms that have taken part in the T4-7 bidding will be able to roll over applications to the T8-9 process. The port authority hopes to accelerate approvals for the new terminals and could announce successful bidders at the same time as it reveals the T4-7 developers. Abbot Point is in the final stages of commissioning an expansion of its terminal 1 to 50 million tonne per year from 25 million tonne per year.

Anglo-Australian resources firm BHP Billiton plans to build the 60 million tonne per year terminal 2 in 2013, with first shipments in 2015-16, while Australian independent Hancock Coal and Indian infrastructure group GVK plan to develop a 60 million tonne per year third terminal from 2013, with first coal potentially in 2015.

Indian group Adani also plans to expand the existing terminal 1 by another 25 million tonne per year by 2014 and a further 10 million tonne per year by 2020. The rise in planned capacity at Abbot Point reflects increased demand for coal export capacity from developers of the new mining projects in the Galilee basin in western Queensland, all of which are in discussions to export through Abbot Point.

(Sourced from argusmedia.com)