By Ben Sharples
March 11 -- Xstrata Plc, the world’s largest exporter of power-station coal, said output at its Rolleston mine in Australia’s Queensland state remains suspended after it was halted about two weeks ago because of heavy rain.
Force majeure remains in place for some customers, Xstrata spokesman James Rickards said by e-mail. The company hasn’t determined a date when production would restart, he said. Output is also suspended at Peabody Energy Corp.’s Wilkie Creek mine, spokeswoman Jennifer Morgans said by phone.
“Exceptional rain” affected Queensland, central Australia and northern New South Wales during the last week of February and the first week of March, the Bureau of Meteorology said on March 5. Rolleston, 275 kilometers (171 miles) west of the port of Gladstone, is in the Bowen Basin and has the capacity to produce 5 million metric tons a year of power-station coal.
About 3 million tons of coal output in the Bowen Basin was lost in the current quarter because of heavy rains, Mark Pervan, a senior commodity strategist at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. in Melbourne, said in a March 9 note, citing reports that he didn’t identify.
Rail networks in central Queensland returned to normal operations this week after tracks damaged by flooding were repaired, a spokesman for QRNational Coal said in an e-mailed statement. QRNational is a unit of QR Ltd., Australia’s largest coal transporter and owned by the state government.
Excess Water
“Our priority remains to remove excess water from the open-cut pits in accordance with all legislative requirements,” Xstrata’s Sydney-based Rickards said. “We will then be able to more effectively determine the full impact of the recent flood waters upon the operation.”
Heavy rain in 2008 resulted in coal producers in the Bowen Basin, including BHP Billiton Ltd., to declare force majeure, a contractual clause that allows companies to miss deliveries because of circumstances beyond their control. The disruptions helped drive spot prices for power-station coal and the type used in steelmaking to a record.
BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance, or BMA as it’s known, said on March 2 that rainfall last month “impacted” shipments from the Hay Point terminal and Gladstone port. The company is the world’s largest steelmaking coal exporter.
Output may resume today at Wilkie Creek, Peabody’s Morgans said. The mine, which has the capacity to produce 2.3 million tons a year of power-station coal per year, is in the Surat Basin of south-east Queensland.
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=ajS3PKapiK4g
March 11 -- Xstrata Plc, the world’s largest exporter of power-station coal, said output at its Rolleston mine in Australia’s Queensland state remains suspended after it was halted about two weeks ago because of heavy rain.
Force majeure remains in place for some customers, Xstrata spokesman James Rickards said by e-mail. The company hasn’t determined a date when production would restart, he said. Output is also suspended at Peabody Energy Corp.’s Wilkie Creek mine, spokeswoman Jennifer Morgans said by phone.
“Exceptional rain” affected Queensland, central Australia and northern New South Wales during the last week of February and the first week of March, the Bureau of Meteorology said on March 5. Rolleston, 275 kilometers (171 miles) west of the port of Gladstone, is in the Bowen Basin and has the capacity to produce 5 million metric tons a year of power-station coal.
About 3 million tons of coal output in the Bowen Basin was lost in the current quarter because of heavy rains, Mark Pervan, a senior commodity strategist at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. in Melbourne, said in a March 9 note, citing reports that he didn’t identify.
Rail networks in central Queensland returned to normal operations this week after tracks damaged by flooding were repaired, a spokesman for QRNational Coal said in an e-mailed statement. QRNational is a unit of QR Ltd., Australia’s largest coal transporter and owned by the state government.
Excess Water
“Our priority remains to remove excess water from the open-cut pits in accordance with all legislative requirements,” Xstrata’s Sydney-based Rickards said. “We will then be able to more effectively determine the full impact of the recent flood waters upon the operation.”
Heavy rain in 2008 resulted in coal producers in the Bowen Basin, including BHP Billiton Ltd., to declare force majeure, a contractual clause that allows companies to miss deliveries because of circumstances beyond their control. The disruptions helped drive spot prices for power-station coal and the type used in steelmaking to a record.
BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance, or BMA as it’s known, said on March 2 that rainfall last month “impacted” shipments from the Hay Point terminal and Gladstone port. The company is the world’s largest steelmaking coal exporter.
Output may resume today at Wilkie Creek, Peabody’s Morgans said. The mine, which has the capacity to produce 2.3 million tons a year of power-station coal per year, is in the Surat Basin of south-east Queensland.
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=ajS3PKapiK4g
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