Australia’s Whitehaven Coal reiterated its annual production view on Wednesday even as wet weather and a labour shortage exacerbated by Covid-19 dented third-quarter output.
The company has had issues accessing some of its projects in New South Wales due to flooding, while a worker crunch caused by Covid-19 has made it tough to staff operations.
Managed run-of-mine coal production fell to 5.2 million tonnes (Mt) in the three months ended March 31, from 5.5 Mt a year ago.
Still, Whitehaven maintained its full-year run-of-mine coal production projection of 19 Mt to 20.5 Mt. That implies a June quarter output of between 5.4 Mt and 6.9 Mt, which would be higher than year-ago figures.
Australia’s largest independent coal miner also left its annual managed coal sales outlook unchanged at 17.2 Mt to 17.8 Mt.
Whitehaven stands to benefit from a move by several nations to reduce their dependence on Russian coal following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The company said this month it was approached by prospective customers ahead of an expected ban on Russian coal imports by the European Union.
Whitehaven, which expected to be debt-free by the March quarter, also said it held A$161 million ($118.91 million) in net cash as at April 19.
- Reuters, with additional editing by George Russell
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