On May 4, Anglo-Swiss miner Xstrata Plc announced that its coking coal output in Australia amounted to 1.7 million mt in the first quarter of the current year, down from 2.2 million mt in the corresponding period of the previous year, due to the timing of longwall moves at the Oaky No. 1 mine in Queensland and Tahmoor in New South Wales. The company's semi-soft coking coal production regressed to 1.5 million metric tons from 1.8 million mt in Q1 2010.
For the second quarter of this year, Xstrata's quarterly prime hard coking coal contract prices have been agreed at $330/mt.
Xstrata's ferrochrome production increased 3.61 percent year on year to 316,000 mt in Q1 2011, in response to stronger market demand, with an average capacity usage rate of 91 percent.
Meanwhile, Xstrata's ferrovanadium production volumes in Q1 this year decreased by 10 percent compared to Q1 2010, totaling 1,084 mt, mainly as a result of the reduced availability of vanadium pentoxide for ferrovanadium conversion due to a 53 percent increase in direct vanadium pentoxide sales compared to the first quarter of 2010.
Xstrata's total refined nickel production in the given quarter rose to 22,637 mt compared to 23,045 mt in the first three months of 2010, as the 50 percent capacity restart of the Falcondo ferronickel operation in the Dominican Republic offset marginally lower refined nickel production from the integrated nickel operations.