Shares of Singapore-listed container shipping firm Neptune Orient Lines (NEPS.SI) fell as much as 2.5% on Friday as the floods in Australia, a major coal supplier, were seen to likely reduce shipments of the commodity.

At 0251 GMT, NOL shares were down 2.1% at $2.33 on a volume of 2.6 million shares.

Australia’s US$50 billion ($64.8 billion) coal export industry is likely to  take months to recover fully from floods that have nearly  halted coal production and infrastructure.

 

“Our view is that the recent floods in Australia have a negative impact on dry bulk stocks because a big portion of the volumes of coke, coal and other bulk commodities will likely decline,” said Teddy Tsai, an analyst at DnB NOR Markets.

 

“But in the long term, I am pretty positive on container shipping as a whole. The supply growth this year is not that intensive and there are expectations that the macro recovery will continue, which will benefit the industry,” he added.