There has been a dramatic recent slow down in the number of ships leaving Geraldton.
At the 20 Jan 2016 the number of ships which had departed for the FY year was in the order of 85 with some 5.1m tonnes being exported which at the same rate of shipping would have resulted in approximately 9.5m tonnes for the FY.
However the number of ships up to 13 May is 128 ships giving a total export of some 7.68m tonnes to date for the FY, but the projected exports now for the FY is 8.79m tonnes, but will probably fall short of this because the 8.79m tonnes is based on a higher rate early in the year.
According to my records there has only been 12 ships so far this quarter (up to 15 May when Sea Diamond is expected to arrive). By 15 May this will be half way through the quarter so at this rate there may only be approximately 24 ships this quarter, much less than the 40 in each of the first 2 quarters and the 36 in the 3rd quarter.
If there only 12 more ships this quarter then the total export will be 8.4m tonnes for the year. My records for last year indicated there were 9.63m tonnes exported while the GBG annual report reported 9.511m tonnes. It appears that I misread 2 ships departure dates at the beginning or end of FY2015.
But this looks like a drop potentially of 1.1m tonnes for the year.
Danger Will Robertson!
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