Thermal and coking coal exports from Australia's Newcastle port fell 12.5% on the week to 2.64 million mt in the week to Sunday, after four weeks of gains, according to the Newcastle Port Corporation's latest update.

NPC said there were eight vessels in the port loading Monday, up from three the previous week, and three ships in the vessel queue.

The weekly update reported that there were 35 ships sailing towards the port to load coal at Newcastle's three terminals Monday, slightly lower than the 37 en-route at the same time last week.

According to a report from the Hunter Valley Coal Chain Coordinator (HVCCC) Sunday, Port Waratah Coal Services' (PWCS) two coal terminals exported 2.03 million mt of coal, rising 3.2% on the week.

The HVCCC report said there were five ships waiting in the offshore queue to load coal cargoes at the PWCS terminals, up from two the week before.

It reduced April's nominations to 8.2 million mt from the previous 8.3 million mt, adding that the vessel queue was expected to remain less than five at the end of April and May

PWCS port stocks were relatively steady on the week at 1.82 million mt.

According to Platts calculations based on Newcastle and PWCS export data, the Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group terminal shipped the remainder of around 613,461 mt of coal, plunging 41.8% on the week, after two consecutive weeks of significant rallies.

The NCIG terminal does not provide regular updates on the volume of its exports or its stock levels.

Meanwhile, HVCCC said that 3.06 million mt of coal was railed to Newcastle port's three terminals in the week ended Sunday, jumping 3.1% on the week.