Coal news and updates

Glencore H1 coal output slip 4% y-o-y

Diverse miner Glencore produced 68.7 million tonnes of coal during January-June, down 4% on the year, due to lower Australian thermal production, some operating issues and a market-driven decision to cut back production, the company said in its half-year production report on August 13.

The miner produced 24.2 million tonnes of Australian export thermal coal during the period, dropping 7% on the year, while domestic thermal coal production fell 37% on the year to 1.7 million tonnes.

Glencore said falling Australian thermal coal output had resulted from its decision to cut back production due to a weak market, as well as difficult ground conditions at the Bulga underground mine and the Ravensworth and Ulan mines being placed on care and maintenance in H2 2014.

Meanwhile, its South African export thermal coal production rose 8% on the year to 11 million tonnes during H1 2015.

The miner also produced 11.3 million tonnes of domestic thermal coal in South Africa during the six-month period, slipping 2% on the year.

Glencore attributed the overall increase in South African thermal coal production to the ramp-up of opencast operations and continued underground activity improvements at Tweefontein, as well as increases from the reprocessing of coal discards at iMpunzi.

Output at its Colombian operations was largely stable during H1, with production at Prodeco falling just 1% on the year to 10.1 million tonnes, while its 33.3% pro-rata share of production from the Cerrejon mine was steady on the year at 5.9 million tonnes.

All average energy commodity export prices fell compared with the first half of 2014, with the South African thermal coal average realized export price dropping 21% on the year to $57/t.

The average realized export price of Australian thermal coal dropped 16% from H1 2014 to $63/t, while in Colombia, the average realized export prices were $66/t at Prodeco and $58/t at Cerrejon, both down 15% on the year.

In addition, Australian semi-soft production was unchanged on the year at 1.8 million tonnes, while Australian coking coal output fell 7% to 2.7 million tonnes.

The average realized export price of coking coal and semi-soft fell 13% and 16% on the year to $107/t and $82/t in Australia, respectively.
 
source: http://en.sxcoal.com