Industry figures expect demand to return in coming months but the port is in ‘‘despatch’’ – meaning ships are loaded ahead of schedule – for the first time since May 2005.

Official figures showed the queue for the Carrington and Kooragang Island loaders run by Port Waratah Coal Services stood at nine ships, having fallen as low as five last week.

The queue is predicted to rise to as high as 22 later this month before dropping back again to single figures.

A spokesman for Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group, which runs the new Kooragang loader, said it had no queue.

‘‘Supply and demand are in balance,’’ the spokesman said.

While the smaller queue cuts expensive delays at the port, the loader companies have told regulators they need a queue of about 12 to 18 ships for the port to maximise its efficiency.

Despite predictions that damage to Japan’s nuclear power stations would lift demand for power-station coal, the disaster’s impact on Japanese industry seems to have noticeably curbed electricity demand.

‘‘Ships en route to the coal-fired stations that were damaged in the quake sold their coal elsewhere and now those stations still operating don’t need as much coal as a consequence,’’ a coal expert said.

The expert said Newcastle exports had also been cut by Chinese companies re-entering the market in pursuit of high prices of $120 a tonne or more.

Xstrata spokesman James Rickards said Blakefield South and Ulan mines remained out of action.

No one had been underground since the Blakefield fire on January 5, while Ulan underground had been flooded since late March.

Mr Rickards declined to say how much production had been lost but Blakefield has a planned output of 4million tonnes a year and Ulan can produce more than 6million.

Xstrata could have lost nearly 2million tonnes, worth $250million.