By Jack Kimball and Jacqueline Cowhig
BOGOTA/LONDON, July 27 (Reuters) – Colombia’s Drummond Coal,
one of the country’s two biggest exporters of thermal coal, will
be able to load only three out of five ships berthing in the
next few days because the Fenoco rail strike has shrunk port
stockpiles, Colombian logistics sources said.
Drummond may have to declare force majeure within a week
unless customers agree to defer shipments, they said.
Most of Drummond’s customers are utilities and traders in
Europe.
Colombia is the world’s fourth-largest coal exporter and
Fenoco transports coal to ports for its shareholders Glencore
International Plc’s Prodeco unit, Drummond
International and Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s Colombian
unit.
Drummond was unavailable for comment.
Drummond as of Friday had about 100,000 tonnes of coal in
stockpiles at the ports and five ships due to arrive to start
loading before the end of July, they said.
“Drummond has been loading at a slower rate than usual but
there was not enough coal at the port on Thursday to load all
the vessels there,” one source said.
Continued…
