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After years of being known for exporting coal to the world, until quite recently coal was imported to the Tyne from USA and elsewhere. A new quay was constructed at South Shields to load on to trains and then onwards to power stations. However in 2015 it was deemed more economic to unload the coal on the West co ast and transport it by train directly to the power stations.

Alam Penting

The ALAM PENTING (Singapore) seen here bringing coal from New Orleans, on her first visit in 2011, was billed as 'the largest ship to be berthed in the river'. In fact although many ships of similar length have brought coal, she had the greatest draught as she was loaded with 75 000 tonnes of coal. This was only made possible by recent deepening of the river to be able to handle vessels of this size. On 16th May 2012 a sister ship, the ALAM PESONA broke the record with 76 195 tonnes of coal- the river at that time was importing over 2 million tonnes annually. Both ships are 229 m (750 ft.) long and 36.53 m (120 ft.) wide. These huge vessels are called "Panamax" as they are the largest that could pass though the Panama Canal before its widening in 2016.