Anglo American coal revenues drop in 2014

Anglo American’s coal business made underlying EBIT of US$438 million in 2014, down from US$587 million in 2013, according to the company’s preliminary results, as its coal operations in Australia and Canada dropped into the red.

The mining giant’s Australian and Canadian coal operations made a loss of US$1 million for the year, having made US$106 million in 2013 – despite achieving record metallurgical coal production of 20.9 million t. It blamed the loss on a 21% decrease in the average quarterly hard coking coal benchmark coal price, which reduced underlying EBIT by US$528 million, as well as a US$86 million loss at Peace River Coal in British Colombia, which was placed into care and maintenance.

In South Africa, the company’s EBIT was steady with the previous year at US$350 million as strong operational performance, lower costs and favourable currency movement mitigated a 10% drop in export prices.

Anglo’s Colombian operations saw a 29% drop in EBIT on 2013, owing to weaker prices hitting EBIT by US$73 million.

Written by Jonathan Rowland.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcoal.com/coal/16022015/anglo-american-coal-revenues-drop-in-2014-1898/