The North Queensland Export Terminal is Australia’s northernmost coal export terminal. It is located in naturally occurring deep water, about 25 kilometres north of Bowen.

The deep water means no dredging is required to allow ships to berth at or depart from the Terminal via shipping lanes that follow naturally occurring channels. Since 2021, our port operator Abbot Point Operations has used Dynamic Under Keel Clearance (DUKC) technology to improve ship loading efficiency. 

The DUKC system determines more accurate sailing windows for deep-draft vessels based on forecast and actual metocean data collected by wave rider buoys, current sensors, lookdown lasers and anemometer feeds installed at the Port of Abbot Point. Most importantly, the innovation increases the amount of time ships can load at berth on either side of the high tide.

The Terminal’s location provides access to fast growing international markets in Asia and its close proximity to road and rail transport for mines in the Bowen and Galilee resources basins make it one of Queensland’s most important strategic economic and trade assets.