RIO Tinto Ltd., the world’s third- largest mining company, said it may not be able to meet orders to export coal from the Hail Creek and Blair Athol mines in Australia because of congestion at the Dalrymple Bay port.

“Customers have been notified and force majeure is in effect,” Rio spokeswoman Amanda Buckley said in Melbourne by phone.

Force majeure is a legal clause allowing a company to cancel contractual obligations due to circumstances beyond its control.

The clause will apply to first-quarter sales in 2008.

Capacity at Dalrymple Bay, Australia’s second-biggest coal-export harbor, will be restricted this half as the port is expanded, owner Babcock & Brown Infrastructure Group said in August.

More than A$1.1 billion ($969 million) is being spent to increase annual capacity by 44 percent to 85 million metric tons by the end of 2008.

Babcock & Brown has been reducing allocations of port capacity for users while the expansion takes place.

Rio is the biggest user of the port and has had its capacity cut by 1.2 million tons in the first quarter of 2008, Rio Tinto Coal Australia spokeswoman Alison Smith said.

Overall capacity at the port has been reduced by 4.1 million tons, she said.

Babcock & Brown officials weren’t immediately available to comment at the company’s in Sydney.

The port handles coal from mining companies including Xstrata Plc. and Macarthur Coal Ltd., which reduced its sales targets by 11 percent to 4 million tons for 2007-08 because of the constraints.

Xstrata and Macarthur officials weren’t immediately available to comment.

Numerous Reductions

“THIS reduction in port entitlements is significant and follows numerous reductions through 2007,” Smith said in a statement. “We are unable to provide an estimate of the duration of the force majeure event.”

The reductions will be split between 500,000 tons at Hail Creek and 700,000 tons at Blair Athol.

Mining is continuing at both mines, Smith said.

Blair Athol produced 10.2 million tons of thermal coal in 2006 and Hail Creek produced 4.5 million tons of coking coal, used in steelmaking.

Rio rose by as much as A$9.82, or 7.6 percent, to A$138.22 and traded at A$138.02 as of 2:21 p.m. Sydney time on the Australian Stock Exchange. (Bloomberg)

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RIO Tinto Ltd., the world’s third- largest mining company, said it may not be able to meet orders to export coal from the Hail Creek and Blair Athol mines in Australia because of congestion at the Dalrymple Bay port.