Key U.S. coal port to restart after breakdowns

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

31 Dec 2009

Norfolk Southern Corp's Lamberts Point coal export terminal should be back in full operation by Friday, after two conveyor belt failures halted loadings last weekend, a spokesman said Wednesday. One belt was to be repaired and running by late Wednesday and the other by Friday at the Norfolk, Virginia, terminal, the largest in North America, Norfolk Southern spokesman Robin Chapman said.
The conveyor belt failures led Norfolk Southern on Tuesday to extend a force majeure declared Dec. 18 because heavy snow had slowed shipments in key coal-hauling corridors on the railroad's system, the spokesman said.
Ten ships were waiting to load on Wednesday at Lamberts Point, which transfers mostly steel-making coal from railcars to ships for export, the spokesman said. He had no estimate of the volume of cargo affected.
"It's not unheard of, but it is probably more than you usually see here," Chapman said of the ship queue.
An overheated bearing burned a hole in one conveyor belt last Saturday. A second belt developed a tear on Sunday. The belts were relatively short, 132 feet (40 meters) long, facilitating quick repair, Chapman said.
The terminal has been busy recently due to increased exports of U.S. steel-making coal, considered among the world's highest in quality, after a sharp slowdown earlier in the year due to worldwide economic slowdown.
Chapman said there was no indication ramped-up operations had anything to do with the breakdowns.
Norfolk Southern lists Lamberts Point's maximum coal-loading capacity as 42 million tons annually. The U.S. coal industry produces a bit more than 1 billion tons of coal a year, with 4 percent to 8 percent of that exported.

Source: Reuters