HUNTER
VALLEY
The Hunter Valley Coal Chain is the
world’s largest coal export operation,
and we provide coal mines in the Hunter
Valley and Gunnedah Basin with rail
access to the Port of Newcastle. On
average there are over 300 trains per
day accessing the Hunter Valley network
and around half of these are coal trains.
A number of passenger services also
access the network, as well as grain and
general freight trains.
We work hard to increase rail coal chain ca-
pacity and performance to meet contracted
volumes and in the past year we consist-
ently provided more capacity than actual
tonnages transported.The coal tonnage
result for the year has been affected by
global factors and while demand has not
reached forecast expectations it remains
significantly higher than in previous years.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
•
•
Total tonnages reached 163 million
tonnes, an increase of 8.7 percent on the
previous period.
•
•
In one day, a record tonnage of over
210million tonnes per annum (mtpa) equiv-
alent was reached, which resulted in over
23,000 tonnes of export coal per hour being
hauled to the Port of Newcastle. Between
October and December 2013 the delivered
export tonnage averaged an equivalent of
over 162mtpa every day. This result is tes-
tament to the effective collaboration of the
participants of the Hunter Valley Coal Chain.
•
•
$158 million has been invested in capital
projects across the Hunter Valley Chain.
The reduction compared to previous years
is a reflection of the lower coal price.
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