Equity in world's largest coal port to be sold, valued at over 7.2 billion yuan

According to Australian media, Macquarie Group has engaged investment bank Goldman Sachs to assess the sale of its stake in the Port of Newcastle, with the deal potentially valued at over A$1.5 billion (approximately RMB 7.153 billion). Macquarie Group is one of the world's most experienced infrastructure investors, with over two decades of investment and management expertise in the ports and terminals sector, holding terminal equity stakes in ports including the Port of New York and New Jersey and the Port of Busan.

The Port of Newcastle is the largest port on Australia's east coast and the world's largest coal export port, handling approximately 40% of Australia's coal exports. In 2014, the local government privatised the port, with its equity split equally between an infrastructure fund and China Merchants Group. The fund is now managed by Macquarie Group, while China Merchants Port Holdings acquired the 50% stake in the Port of Newcastle from China Merchants Group in 2018.

The Port of Newcastle currently operates under a "landlord port" model, and has held a 98-year management and land lease right since 2014. The port is divided into four harbour areas, comprising 21 berths, of which 9 are dedicated coal berths. Its designed capacity is 211 million tonnes, and in 2025 it exported a total of 154 million chargeable tonnes of cargo, of which 149 million chargeable tonnes were coal. (A chargeable tonne is a standard unit used in international logistics and freight industries for calculating freight charges; the core principle is "chargeable on the greater of actual weight and volumetric weight", i.e. comparing the actual weight and the volumetric equivalent and using the larger value as the basis for billing.)