Australia’s New Hope to ramp up coal sales

Market: Coal, Coking coal
08/03/23

Australian coal producer New Hope will step up production in 2023-24, with a first shipment of coal from its reopened New Acland mine, expansion of its Bengalla mine and first ramp-up at Malabar Resources' Maxwell underground mine.

New Hope expects to ship 7.93mn t of coal in 2022-23, down from 8.84mn t in 2021-22 and 10.1mn t in 2020-21. But despite the lower output in the past couple of years, the firm plans to restart its growth plans in its August 2023-July 2024 fiscal year.

It expects to ship first coal from the 4.8mn t/yr New Acland mine in Queensland in August-October, which is several months later than the market had expected when approval for the restart was granted in October 2022.

It also expects to have largely completed its expansion of the Bengalla mine in New South Wales (NSW) to 13.4mn t/yr of run-of-mine (ROM).The upgrade to the coal handling and preparation plant is expected to be finished this month, and new truck, excavator and ancillary vehicles are expected to be on site before the end of July.

New Hope also has exposure to the unlisted Malabar Resources, which is building the Maxwell underground thermal and coking coal mine on the former site of the Drayton coal mine in NSW. Construction has started on the board and pillar operations, and supply contracts for the longwall have been executed, with Malabar targeting a run rate of 6.5mn t/yr in 2025, according to New Hope.

New Hope produced 1.54mn t of coal in November 2022-January 2023, down from 1.62mn t in August-October, and from 2.05mn t in November 2021-January 2022. Sales fell to 1.46mn t in November-January from 1.88mn t in August-October, when it sold coal that was unable to reach ports because of flooding in July.

The firm expects increased demand for its thermal coal as Covid-19 lockdowns ease further in China and Japan reduces Russian coal imports. It continues to maintain a heavily sold forward sales book.

Argus last assessed high-grade 6,000 kcal/kg NAR thermal coal at $191.45/t fob Newcastle on 3 March, down from $249.79/t on 3 February and from a peak of $444.59/t on 9 September. It assessed lower grade 5,500 kcal/kg NAR coal at $116.98/t fob Newcastle on 3 March, down from $128.93/t on 3 February and from $137.53/t on 25 November.

By Jo Clarke

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