Coal news and updates

Night rail ban to put Colombia coal exports at risk

Colombia’s main coal railway will implement a ban on night operations from Feb. 13, potentially cutting coal volumes reaching Caribbean ports by as much as 16 million tons per year, the company said.

“Based on current projections of existing users of the railroad this would equate to an annualized loss of 14 - 16 million tonnes of coal movement from the Cesar Coal Basin to the coal ports near Cienaga.,” Patrick Ross, President of Ferrocarriles del Norte de Colombia SA, or Fenoco, said in an e-mail Wednesday. “This will have a significant impact on the users of the publicly-owned railway, namely major coal producers.”

Units of Drummond Co., Glencore Plc and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are served by the railway, which between them produce more than half of the Andean nation’s coal. The Constitutional Court ordered Fenoco to halt transportation between 10:30 p.m. and 4:30 a.m. following noise complaints from locals, which Ross said would cut the railway’s capacity by 25 percent.

Colombia’s Ministry of Mines and Energy has filed a request to amend the ruling so that transportation can continue 24 hours a day, saying the ban “represents a considerable economic loss that will significantly affect the finances of the state.”

Colombia produced about 87 million tons of coal last year, missing a target of 95 million tons, according to a government official who asked not to be identified because the figures aren’t public yet.

Source: Bloomberg