SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia’s weather bureau has cut the forecast strength of a cyclone bearing down on the continent’s far northwest on Friday and dropped its warning for high winds at iron ore terminal Port Hedland.
Cyclone Joyce, a Category 1 storm, is holding just off the beaches of Pilbara iron ore belt, prompting the overnight closure of the world’s biggest iron ore export terminal at Port Hedland, 1,700 km (1,050 miles) north of Perth, as a safety precaution.
“Port Hedland has been taken out of warning status, with winds easing as Joyce moves inland,” the weather bureau said in a tweet.
The port accounts for over half of Australia’s iron ore exports, handling more than a million tonnes a day from the Pilbara iron belt, the majority bound for Chinese steel mills.
The storm is forecast to cross the sparsely populated coast about 250km northeast from Port Hedland later on Friday. But it is no longer predicted to reach Category 3, or severe strength, according to advice issued by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology overnight.
However, the very destructive winds previously forecast are no longer expected and once the storm makes landfall later on Friday it is predicted to weaken as it travels inland.
Port Hedland was cleared and closed on Thursday.
Pilbara Ports Authority, which operates Port Hedland, said it was monitoring the storm’s effects on ports further south at Dampier and Ashburton as well, but has not updated its advice since the weather bureau’s revised forecast.
The storm is the second to menace Australia’s northwest in as many weeks, since Cyclone Hilda blew down trees and caused minor damage at Broome last week.
On average, there are 10 to 13 tropical cyclones between November and April in the Australian region, four of which typically cross the coast, data from the bureau shows.
The possibility of a protracted closure at Port Hedland if Cyclone Joyce had intensified failed to stoke iron ore buying, despite China’s strong reliance on supplies from Australia.
Iron ore futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange were down 2 percent in midday trading at the Shanghai Futures Exchange, after falling 0.4 percent in the previous session.[IRONORE/]
Reporting by Tom Westbrook; Additional reporting by James Regan; Editing by Diane Craft and Kenneth Maxwell