Wesfarmers Ltd says prices for metallurgical coal exports from its Queensland Curragh mine will fall sharply but maintain ``market price relativity''.
The company said the weighted average US dollar freight-on-board price for hard coking, semi-hard coking and PCI (pulverised coal injection) coal from Curragh would drop by about 59 per cent in the coming year.
Wesfarmers Resources managing director Stewart Butel said the outcomes from annual price negotiations were ``in line with publicly-reported settlements by other exporters of similar quality products''.
"Curragh metallurgical sales volumes for the 2008/09 financial year are expected to be at the lower end of the previously stated range of 6.5 million tonnes to 6.9 million tonnes with demand from customers in the second half reduced due to the global economic crisis,'' Mr Butel said.
Coal production at its Premier mine in Western Australia for the March quarter was 880,000 tonnes, up 4.1 per cent on the previous quarter due to increased demand from state-owned power station operator Verve during summer.
At Wesfarmers' 40 per cent owned Bengalla coal mining operations in New South Wales, its share of coal production for the quarter was 450,000 tonnes, down 19.6 per cent on the December quarter, partly due to the impact of wet weather.
Source: Melbourne Herald Sun
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