The number of jobs slashed by mining companies in response to the global downturn has moved beyond 10,000, with mining giant Anglo American's coal unit revealing more than 1000 job cuts in Queensland.
Anglo Coal said yesterday it would cut 650 contractor and employee jobs in coming weeks and revealed that it had already cut 450 contractors from its coal mines and Brisbane office.
A spokesman said the job cuts were part of a plan to reduce labour and contractor costs by 20 per cent and that nearly all the losses would be in Queensland.
According to a tally kept by the Minerals Council of Australia, nearly 10,700 jobs have been lost since June.
Recently, the coking coal sector has been the hardest hit, as Asian and European steel mills shut down production as economies have slowed.
The outlook for thermal coal, which has been more resilient than coking coal, has also weakened.
"Coal market sentiment looks terrible at the moment," said ANZ commodities analyst Mark Pervan.
"Concerns over an approaching seasonally slow second quarter and reports most Asian consumers are well stocked will put further downward pressure on prices."
Anglo Coal said its latest round of 650 cuts would include 470 contractors, 60 voluntary redundancies and 120 forced redundancies.
The spokesman would not give a number for production cuts and said output rates would vary.
In January and February, Anglo Coal told local media that it would cut 139 jobs at its Dawson North and Aquila mines.
That number had now risen to 450 with more contractor losses on top of the other 650 cuts, the spokesman said.
The company would not comment on the outlook for its products yesterday, but in its regional media releases it said slowing global demand was responsible for the cuts.
Anglo Coal has quarantined more than 200 apprentice and graduate positions from the workforce reductions.
There are few signs so far of an increase in Chinese demand that many had expected as a result of the stimulus packages in the Asian powerhouse.
In Sydney yesterday, Chinalco president Xiong Weiping said there would probably be worse to come in the short term.
"We haven't seen the bottom yet here and the whole sector is still operating in a very unstable and volatile environment," Mr Xiong said.
But he said he was confident about the medium to long term.
"Looking at economic development over the the last 100 years, it is not difficult to draw a conclusion that any future economic growth will be metal-intensive," he said.
The job cuts sparked calls for Queensland, which has been the state hit hardest by job losses, to ease taxes and charges on miners.
Another 3000 existing and planned jobs there are under threat if Rio Tinto's $US19.5 billion ($30.7billion) deal with Chinalco does not get past shareholders and the Rudd Government.
Queensland Mines Minister Geoff Wilson said he hoped to fast-track 11 mining projects in regional Queensland to create more than 1500 jobs.
Source: Bloomberg
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