South32, a global producer of premium-quality hard coking coal for steelmaking with its Illawarra Metallurgical Coal asset in Australia, has announced its metallurgical coal production and sales results for the fourth quarter and the full financial year of 2022-23 ended June 30, 2023.
In the fourth quarter, the company’s metallurgical coal production amounted to 1.5 million mt, increasing by 21.3 percent quarter on quarter and up by 8.9 percent year on year, while its metallurgical coal sales in the given quarter totaled 1.53 million mt, up by 27.9 percent quarter on quarter due to improved product availability and down by 3.7 percent year on year.
In the full financial year, South32 produced 5.49 million mt of metallurgical coal, down 3.8 percent year on year, while sales of metallurgical coal in the given period declined by 7.2 percent year on year to 5.4 million mt. The company’s total coal production in the given year amounted to 6.5 million mt, while its total coal sales came to 6.36 million mt, down by 3.7 percent, both year on year.
South32 achieved its revised financial year 2022-23 production guidance with the improved longwall performance at Appin. The company’s production guidance for the financial year 2022-23 was reduced by seven percent compared to the previous guidance to 6.5 million mt, as SteelOrbis previously reported.
The company’s production guidance for the financial year 2023-24 is unchanged at 5.3 million mt, with two longwall moves planned at both Appin and Dendrobium.