Tropical cyclone Heidi lashed the west Australian coast on Thursday packing winds up to 120 kilometer per hour closing the world's biggest iron ore export terminals.

Heidi made landfall around 4.30 AM local time, according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.

The bureau said winds of up to 120 km per hour had been whipping along the coast overnight, warning gusts of up to 150 km per hour were possible.


Port Hedland, the region's largest iron ore terminal, exporting around 240 million tonnes of iron ore the steel-making commodity a year, has been closed until the storm weakens, which meteorologists say was occurring quickly as passes over land.

Mr Steed Farrell spokesman of Port Hedland Port Authority said “We are still closed. It's not possible at this stage to say when we will be able to go in and assess any damage and start to reopen.”

(Sourced from Reuters)