SYDNEY (Reuters) – Western Australia’s Port Hedland reopened, the port’s operator said late on Saturday, after Tropical Cyclone Zelia hit the state’s iron ore rich Pilbara region on Friday.
Pilbara Ports said on its website that Port Hedland, the world’s largest iron ore hub, reopened after being shut on Wednesday due to the approach of Zelia, the most severe storm to hit the Pilbara coast since Cyclone Ilsa in April 2023.
“Pilbara Ports has undertaken inspections of navigation aids, channels and berths and has confirmed safe operations can resume,” the operator said, referring to the port located about 1,301 km (808 miles) north of state capital Perth.
The nearby ports of Dampier and Varanus Island, a gathering and processing hub for oil and gas, reopened late on Friday.
Zelia, which crossed the coast near Port Hedland as a category five cyclone, the highest danger rating, brought with it heavy rain and wind gusts up to 290 kph (180 mph).
It moved south and weakened to a category four, sparing the town’s population centre from its most destructive winds, before easing to a tropical low as it moved inland on Saturday.
The nation’s weather forecaster said late on Saturday that the low was weakening in the south of the Pilbara, a region twice the size of the United Kingdom
“The immediate threat of severe weather has passed,” the forecaster said on its website.
Port Hedland is used by BHP Group, Fortescue and billionaire Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting. The Dampier and Cape Lambert ports ship iron ore from Rio Tinto, which expected ship movements to resume on Saturday afternoon.
Fortescue said on Saturday it was assessing its operational sites such as roads, villages and mines but advised that the cyclone had done minimal damage.
BHP, which on Thursday paused its Port Hedland operations for safety, said on Saturday that the cyclone had not caused any major damage at its sites.
(Reporting by Sam McKeith in Sydney; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
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