Reuters reported that coal exports at Australia's Newcastle port fell 10% from a week ago as more ship loaders at the port were under planned maintenance.

Port data showed that exports from the east coast port which ships mostly thermal coal used in power generation fell 10.6% to 1.94 million tonnes in the week to November 9th 2009.

Railway operator Hunter Valley Coal Chain Logistics Team said that the number of coal ships arriving at the port was steady at 22, while the average queue time edged up to 5.24 days. However, ship queues climbed by 6 to 24 and are expected to double by the end of the month, in part due to a heavy maintenance schedule planned for the port's rail chain.

(Sourced from Reuters)