Bloomberg reported that coal exports from Australia's Newcastle port fell 8.7% last week and the number of ships waiting outside the port dropped.

Newcastle Port Corporation said that the volume shipped in the week fell to 1.97 million tonnes from 2.16 million tonnes a week earlier. A total of 24 ships waiting to load 1.92 million tonnes of coal were lined up outside the port, down from 26 last week.

Coal ships waited 7.8 days to load the fuel in the week, down from 8.7 days a week earlier. The waiting time compared with 1.1 days for general cargo vessels last week. A total of 24 vessels carrying coal left Newcastle in the week ended November 8th 2008. Sixteen ships were bound for Japan, five for Taiwan, two for South Korea and one for the Netherlands.

According to the globalCOAL NEWC Index, the weekly index for power station coal prices at the New South Wales state port increased USD 3.19 to USD 104.02 per tonne in the week ended November 7th 2008.