New coal terminal at Newcastle gains final approval

Newcastle's new coal terminal cleared its final hurdle Wednesday, with Peter Costello giving the project foreign investment approval.

The $922 million facility, which received planning approval from the NSW Labor Government in April, will begin loading coal in 2010 and will eventually increase the Port of Newcastle's capacity from about 100 million tonnes of coal a year to more than 150 million tonnes. Foreign investment approval was needed because the consortium building the loader, Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group, includes one partner, Peabody, that is based in the US.

There are coal ships - sometimes as many as 50 vessels - waiting to be loaded off Newcastle, according to reports. The queues can cost coal companies as much as $5 million a week in "demurrage" fees, the levy paid to shipping companies when ships are detained.

The new coal loader will be built on Newcastle's Kooragang Island.

It is estimated it will boost Australia's coal exports, currently worth about $25 billion each year, by a further $1 billion, and create 5000 jobs across NSW.