Port Kembla shut due to cargo ship blaze

Shipping at Port Kembla, the second-largest coal export port in NSW, was suspended on Monday after a cargo ship docked there caught fire.

"The port is currently closed ... all shipping is suspended," Port Authority NSW spokesman Adam Browning told Reuters, adding it would likely reopen some time during the day.

More than 100 firefighters are trying to extinguish the blaze on an iron ore carrier docked at the port, which began before dawn, Fire and Rescue NSW said on its Twitter account.

"We're fighting it from the wharf and the deck," Fire and Rescue NSW superintendent Norm Buckley told the Illawarra Mercury newspaper. "We're going to be there for a long time."

The port, also the state's largest vehicle import gateway, counts among customers nearby coal mines run by BHP spinoff South32 and steelmaker BlueScope Steel. Neither responded immediately to requests for comment.

Thomson Reuters Eikon data showed eight vessels at anchor in the port, mostly bulk carriers and roll-on, roll-off vehicle ships.

Reuters