sustainability
Our performance
Responsibly managing environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks and opportunities has always been part of the way we do things. We prioritise and integrate sustainability into ‘business as usual’.
Our Sustainability Performance Snapshot
Our 2025 Sustainability Performance Snapshot provides an at-a-glance overview of our annual performance against our targets. Our progress focuses on a core set of 19 targets related to topics that are important to both our business and stakeholders.
Established by the Senior Leadership Team, these targets are aligned with our material topics and are incorporated into monthly business performance monitoring.
During the year we reviewed our targets to confirm that they continue to provide relevant and useful performance information. Three new targets have been introduced, two have been removed and some targets have been updated to reflect contemporary measurement goals.
*New or updated target to reflect contemporary measurement goal.
Our annual performance and progress at a glance
Health and Safety
Licence to operate
Effective organisation
Operational Delivery
Coal chain
Health & Safety
We won't compromise on safety
Our people are our greatest asset
Key Achievements
- Achieved all-injury frequency rate of 1.86, a significant improvement on 6.04 in 2024.
- No work-related significant health exposures or fatalities occurred.
Safety performance in 2025 improved compared to the previous year with the All-Injury Frequency Rate (AIFR) target of four or less achieved, at 1.86 per 1,000,000 hours worked. This improvement reflects a reduction in reportable injuries, with two recorded compared to six in 2024. There were zero work-related significant health exposures or fatalities. Additionally, there were also zero incidents of ill health were reported during the year and zero significant health risks identified.
The Health and Safety Strategy 2026–2028 was finalised for implementation. It focuses on strengthening safety culture and performance through ten targeted improvement actions related to leadership engagement, proactive injury and illness prevention, integration of critical controls, data-informed decision making, and a shift from compliance to continuous learning.
Licence to Operate
We proactively manage our impacts and relationships
We maximise the sustainability of our operations
Key Achievements
- Annual electricity intensity improved on the previous three-year average by 0.2%.
- Achieved the highest levels of community trust and acceptance since Local Voices surveys commenced in 2018.
Our long-term commitment to improving air quality, noise management, water systems, environmental footprint and climate impact remains steadfast, aiming to prevent pollution, promote sustainability, and minimise impacts on the environment and local community.
In 2025, Port Waratah programmed 33 Licence to Operate (LTO) improvement projects. We completed 25 projects with the remaining eight reprioritised and scheduled for future years.
We achieved our established target of less than three reportable environmental incidents across our operations with two occurring within the year, one at the Kooragang Terminal and one at the Carrington Terminal. To sustain our commitment to strong performance, the environmental incident target will remain the same in 2026, supported by focused risk-based management strategies and implementation of improvement projects.
Effective Organisation
Our culture is collaborative and caring
We look after one another and work together to achieve our goals
Key Achievements
- Finalist in the NSW Mineral Council Community Award for our ‘In-Country Experiences’ programme for employees.
- Generative AI adoption enabled by employee training, an AI chatbot and more efficient task management including maintenance scheduling.
Our recognition programme, ‘Celebrate Success’, acknowledged 324 moments of achievement in 2025. At an awards event, 10 team members were celebrated for reaching significant service milestones and another 10 were acknowledged as Outstanding Contributors for living our values of excellence, integrity, caring and progress.
A refreshed Diversity Equity and Inclusion Strategy and Action Plan 2025-2027 was launched in 2025, defining our commitment to a diverse workforce and culture of fairness, equity and inclusiveness.
Our Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) formally concluded in December 2025 with completion of all commitments. Building on this progress, Port Waratah is preparing to transition to its next RAP in 2026.
We have ongoing commitment to developing early careers. In 2025, we supported 13 apprentices, five scholarship students, three graduates and three trainees.
Operational Delivery
Our customers can rely on us
We maintain and invest in infrastructure to optimise our operational outcomes
Key Achievements
- A total of 96.5Mt loaded onto 1,144 vessels.
- Invested $86.9M in 32 asset renewal and improvement projects across both terminals, including a 4-month shiploader outage at Kooragang.
In 2025, our total combined terminal throughput was 96.5Mt, which was less than 2024 results, largely due to mid-year challenges related to adverse weather conditions. These conditions caused operational inefficiencies across the coal chain and led to a high vessel queue. We recovered by meticulously monitoring our service delivery performance, adapting maintenance and project plans, and closely working with coal chain partners to improve performance.
Consequently, we achieved throughput records on two shiploaders at Kooragang and one at Carrington in September and October, while conducting a major outage on the remaining Kooragang shiploader.
We launched the Kooragang Shiploader Investment Programme and delivered extension works on the 7.09 Shiploader and several other stockyard and wharf asset maintenance projects including the last of the bridge infill installations at Kooragang. Multiple improvement and sustainment projects were completed during planned outages at both terminals including structural repairs to address fatigue and corrosion on conveyor gantries and yard machines, as well as stockyard rail tamping.
Coal Chain
We collaborate across the coal chain
Our services provide certainty and confidence to trade globally
Key Achievements
- Exported to two new destinations, Ukraine and Lithuania.
- Coal Chain collaboration to reduce vessel turnaround time and the vessel queue from 82 to 3.
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. Non-port related challenges experienced during 2025 included coal chain network reliability and coal availability issues. 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.
Japan remains our largest export destination receiving 47 per cent of terminal throughput, falling slightly from 49 per cent in 2024. China’s share of exported tonnes remained consistent at 30 per cent.
New contract nominations by our customers were made for the period 2028 to 2030 amounted to an additional 19 million tonnes, demonstrating strong demand for our services from our customers.
