China's Guangzhou port storage facilities unable to accept new coal cargoes - official

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've had 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 a full resumption of operations.

The latest port filing showed August's cargo throughput volumes at 35.5 million tonnes, up 3.8 percent from a year ago, but down from 38.45 million tonnes in July.

News of the halt on new cargoes will rekindle worries about tightness in the market amid declining domestic production and more stringent port checks on coal cargoes.

Mining caps and closures last year resulted in huge rises in coal prices which took many in the market by surprise.

The Guangzhou port official said some traders have been holding their stocks at port, anticipating a hike in prices in winter, aggravating congestion.

China's coal production in July fell to its lowest level since October 2016 due to a flurry of environmental checks at coal mines. Coal imports also touched a five-month low in July.

(Reporting by Meng Meng and Beijing Monotoring Desk; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell and Richard Pullin)