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PERTH, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Long shipping queues could persist at Australia's Dalrymple Bay port until mid-2010 as the rail network struggles to keep pace with the world's third-largest coal export terminal, a port official said on Wednesday.
Queues have eased from last week's record high of 76, but they still stretched to 71 ships on Wednesday, with the last in line facing an average wait of about 28 days.
Trains hauling coal to Dalrymple Bay, in northeast Queensland state, cannot keep up with the rising demand for coking coal, despite the addition of 20 trains to the rail system this week, said Greg Smith, head of operations at the port's coal terminal.
"There are not enough trains in supply chain to send coal to the terminal and we may face this imbalance for quite some time until the fleet is boosted next year," Smith said.
The two firms that haul coal to the port, Pacific National and state-owned Queensland Rail, are spending heavily to upgrade the rail yard and add more trains that will only be available next year.
An extra 20 trains have been diverted to Dalrymple for 3-4 weeks from a smaller, adjacent coal port, Hay Point, while the latter port undergoes planned maintenance.
"We've received more trains from Hay Point this week and that's helping us to get higher deliveries to the port, but the ships are also arriving at a higher rate, which is why the queues are continuing to build," Smith said.
Smith said Dalrymple now received about four extra trains each day. Each train carries 9,600-10,000 tonnes of coal.
Dalrymple port has a newly expanded annual capacity of 85 million tonnes, but producer sources say the port is at times operating at just 40 percent of capacity.
The severe congestion has tied up a lot of cape-sized vessels and also helped support a rise in freight rates, with the Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index hitting a three-month high on Tuesday.
Helped by a surge in Chinese demand for Australian coal, Dalrymple's volumes have now recovered from the global financial crisis and surpassed their previous peaks.
Dalrymple Bay, owned by Babcock Brown Infrastructure Group , handles coal from 19 mines in Queensland's Bowen Basin.
The port's major customers include the BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance, Rio Tinto , Macarthur Coal, Anglo Coal Australia, Xstrata Plc and Peabody.

(Reporting by Fayen Wong; Editing by Mark Bendeich)

((fayen.wong@thomsonreuters.com; +618 9456 1947; Reuters Messaging: fayen.wong.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: AUSTRALIA COAL/DALRYMPLE . Keywords: AUSTRALIA COAL/DALRYMPLE =2 PERTH (If you have a query or comment on this story, send an email to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com)

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