Global coal markets continue to value the Hunter Valley’s higher-quality coal and Port Waratah is in a unique position to provide our coal handling services to all coal mines in the region.

Stakeholders within the coal chain operate as independent entities however the coordinated collaboration and planning deliver the real strength that the Hunter Valley coal chain is world renowned for. The core of our customer service is to ensure the right coal at the right time is assembled to align with the vessel arrival time to minimise vessel demurrage costs to our customers.

During the first seven months of 2025, export tonne volumes were impacted by coal delivery issues and terminal operational challenges caused by significant weather-related port conditions and restrictions. These prominently included port entrance restrictions, port depth and vessel movement restrictions due to freshwater levels entering Newcastle harbour from the northern river systems. Additionally, network reliability and coal availability were further challenges experienced in 2025 affecting the coal chain. These challenges resulted in a higher-than-normal vessel queue, which peaked at 82 vessels in June.

In response to these challenges, coal chain partners developed new ways to collaborate to drive greater efficiency and increase operational performance and by year end, the vessel queue was reduced to three. The overall annual vessel turnaround time was 12 days in 2025 compared to 4.6 days in 2024.