IN Brief:
- Pilbara Ports reported 69.3 million tonnes of September throughput, a 1% increase from September 2025.
- Port Hedland handled 49.6 million tonnes, including 48.9 million tonnes of iron ore exports.
- Dampier handled 15.2 million tonnes; its imports increased 24% year on year while Port Hedland imports fell 19%.
Pilbara Ports handled 69.3 million tonnes of cargo in September 2026, an increase of 1% from the same month last year. Port Hedland contributed 49.6 million tonnes and Dampier a further 15.2 million tonnes. The figures measure imports and exports moving through the Western Australian port system during the month, not new berth capacity or a forecast for the year ahead.
Port Hedland’s September result included 48.9 million tonnes of iron ore exports. The figure demonstrates the extent to which the port’s freight operations depend on moving bulk mining output to vessels, where the availability of stock, rail deliveries, berths and suitable sailing conditions must be coordinated. Total throughput at Port Hedland was 1% higher than in September 2025, but the authority has not attributed the month’s increase to a particular new berth, rail investment or productivity programme.
Port Hedland received 174,000 tonnes of imports, 19% less than in September 2025, despite its rise in overall traffic. Those inbound cargoes are reported separately from the much larger iron ore export flow. Imports may serve mining and other regional operations, but Pilbara Ports does not provide a September commodity breakdown that would identify a particular sector behind the fall. A decrease in inbound tonnage therefore cannot be attributed to a reduction in activity at an individual project or customer.
The Port of Dampier handled 15.2 million tonnes overall, also 1% higher year on year. Its imports reached 132,000 tonnes, up 24% compared with September 2025. At Port Hedland, by contrast, import tonnage fell 19% to 174,000 tonnes even as its total throughput rose 1%. The ports therefore recorded matching headline growth but sharply different movements in inbound freight; the authority has not identified a cause for either import trend.
Port Hedland and Dampier together accounted for 64.8 million tonnes of the 69.3 million-tonne total. The balance was handled within the wider Pilbara Ports reporting area, which includes Ashburton and Varanus Island. The short September release does not provide a complete location-by-location allocation of that remainder. Treating the two largest ports as the whole authority would understate total tonnage and obscure the contribution of smaller facilities.
The authority reported 65.9 million tonnes in August 2026 and 63.8 million tonnes in July, making September higher than either preceding month in absolute tonnage. Consecutive-month comparisons are sensitive to when vessels sail and customers bring cargo forward, however. They should not be equated with sustained demand growth without examining comparable periods, the cargo mix and operating conditions. September’s 1% annual increase offers the clearer same-month comparison.
The monthly results follow a record 2025–26 financial year, when Pilbara Ports handled 804.1 million tonnes, against 775.7 million tonnes in 2024–25. Port Hedland contributed 580.4 million tonnes for the year, Dampier 178.3 million tonnes and Ashburton 45.2 million tonnes. Iron ore exports across the authority’s ports reached 759.4 million tonnes. These annual figures provide scale for the latest month, but they cover a different accounting period and cannot be treated as a forecast for the 2026–27 year.
Across the record financial year, Pilbara Ports reported 9,499 safe vessel visits, averaging approximately 26 per day, and estimated A$150 billion of export commodity value. The number of calls does not move in fixed proportion to tonnes handled: vessel size, permissible draught, cargo density and loading arrangements influence each ship’s cargo. Higher throughput can arise from larger average loads as well as additional vessel movements, provided berth access and safe navigation permit them.
In December 2025, Pilbara Ports attributed higher safe loading volumes at Port Hedland partly to revised rules for vessel departures on ebb tides and improvements to dynamic under-keel clearance. The adjustments helped ships use suitable sailing windows and load within navigational depth limits. The September 2026 release does not attribute that month’s result to these measures, but the earlier programme shows how vessel draught, available depth and marine traffic management can constrain the movement of bulk cargo even when demand and mine output are sufficient.
Pilbara Ports identifies market conditions, weather, planned maintenance and customers’ requirements as factors behind monthly throughput fluctuations. Altered sailing dates, vessel loads or stock availability can shift cargo between reporting periods without changing the physical capacity of a berth or channel. The September release does not give vessel-visit figures for the month or attribute the 1% annual increase to a specific operating improvement. Later monthly datasets may show whether the divergent import flows continued.
