China's northern ports shut due to heavy fog

China's major coal-shipping ports in the north, including top coal port Qinhuangdao, have been shut since Monday afternoon due to heavy fog, slowing the flow of coal to southern China, industry sources said on Tuesday.

"The fog is still very heavy. We don't know when the operations will resume," said a source at Qinhuangdao port, who declined to be named. "A lot of coal has been piling up at the port."

Operations have been halted since Monday afternoon, sources said.

Port data showed that only 260,000 tonnes of coal had been shipped out in the 24 hours ended Tuesday morning, compared with 659,000 tonnes in the previous 24-hour period, according to industry data website www.sxcoal.com.

Operations at other ports, including Caofeidian and Tangshan in Hebei Province, have also been halted due to the bad weather, potentially threatening the flow of coal to southern China just as parts of the country are grappling with coal and power shortages.

Source: http://uk.reuters.com