Speaking at an American Chamber of Commerce lunch in Brisbane, Australian miner BHP Billiton’s coal president Mike Henry said that the coal industry needs to focus on productivity and build stronger community support for the sector, in order to address the sustained price declines in recent years.
“Prices for metallurgical coal have fallen by a further 25-30 percent since the start of this calendar year and thermal coal by 10-15 percent. There are no signs of things getting better in the immediate term,” Mr. Henry said.
He went on to say that, while the Australian coal industry had been working hard to improve productivity and reduce costs, more needed to be done to restore the sector to strong profitability.
“The financial sustainability of the Australian coal industry is wholly dependent on our ability to materially improve and sustain levels of productivity to stay one step ahead of our global competition,” stated the BHP Billiton coal president, adding that significant further productivity improvements will allow the industry to be competitive in the long-term.