BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Guangzhou port, the largest coal transport hub in southern China, said on Thursday that its storage facilities are currently unable to accept new coal cargoes.
Bad weather in recent weeks has led to a backlog of cargoes, a Guangzhou Port Co official told Reuters, with storage facilities almost full. "We have three typhoons since the end of August and lots of rains in recent weeks, said the official, who declined to be identified by name pending a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that Guangzhou, with 14 coal berths and capacity to handle 60 million tonnes of shipments per year, had halted operations including foreign coal imports. The move surprised traders who said they hadn't received official information on why operations had been halted, and feared a ban on imports was being implemented in the wake of similar curbs at other China ports.
"Guangzhou port has not received any notices from customs regarding any curb on coal imports," the official said. "Neither did the port send out any notices to its clients...As of this week, we still have foreign coal cargo ships coming into the port."
The port is "working actively" to resolve coal shipment backlog problems, the official said, without giving a timetable for full resumption of operations.
(Reporting by Meng Meng and Beijing Monotoring Desk; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)
