Yancoal announces annual loss for 2015

Australian coal company, Yancoal, has announced an after-tax loss of AUS$291 million on revenues of AUS$1.3 billion for the full year to 31 December. Full-year production hit 20.8 million t ROM with 15.2 million t of saleable coal. Total coal sales totaled 17.81 million t.

The company’s performance continues to reflect the low pricing environment for both thermal and metallurgical coal and comes after an AUS$ 353.5 million loss in 2014. Yancoal has also been hit by changes to Chinese coal import regulations.

In response, the company said it was continuing to restructure its underground mines and consolidate its back office and shared services, as well as managing its take-or-pay logistics arrangements and maximising blending opportunities to boost yields.

“Via the restructuring of our undergrounds and continued improvement in fleet efficiencies and overburden managements at out open cuts, we have achieved significant cost savings on the year prior and met our forecast production targets,” said Yancoal’s CEO, Reinhold Schmidt.

“Moving forward, we remain focused on new market growth strategies and the development of our existing brownfield project pipeline,” Schmidt continued, including the development of the company’s Moorlarben asset in the Western Coalfields of New South Wales. It is currently developing the Moorlarben Stage Two asset.

“With the ongoing support of our major shareholders, we continue to progress the development of the low-cost high-quality Moorlarben asset, while developing new blending opportunities across our New South Wales mines to maximise yields” Schmidt said.

The company continues to expect prices for metallurgical and thermal coal to remain low through 2016. It expects production to fall to 13.5 million t this year with cost reductions a priority across operations.

Yancoal is majority owned by Chinese coal company, Yanzhou Coal Mining Co. Ltd, and owns seven producing mines and a number of development assets across Queensland and New South Wales.

Edited by Jonathan Rowland.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcoal.com/mining/01032016/yancoal-announces-annual-loss-for-2015-2016-321/