Mongolian Mining's Jan-Jun hard coking coal sales rise 32% to 3.1 mil mt
Mongolian Mining Corporation's sales of hard coking coal in January-June 2013 rose 32% year on year to 3.1 million mt, of which 2.2 million mt was washed coal, the Hong Kong-listed company said Wednesday.
The volume of washed coal sales rose 72.1% year on year and accounted for 87.3% of total coal revenues of $247.8 million for the January-July period. It received an average price of $98.7/mt for its washed hard coking coal over the six-month period compared with $138.7/mt in the same period of 2012, MMC said.
Most Mongolian coking coal arrives at the Chinese border unwashed, and is therefore of lower quality, which is one of the reasons the product receives a discount compared with Chinese domestic and seaborne coking coal. MMC has been improving its coal processing operations to be able to provide a washed product, and commissioned a third processing module in June, it said.
The first module began commercial operations in June 2011, and the second in February 2012, an MMC spokeswoman said Wednesday.
"Each of the modules has an annual coal processing capacity of 5 million mt, making a total of 15 million mt/year," she said.
MMC was able to reduce the impact of lower coking coal prices by cutting average production costs for run-of-mine coal by $2.7/mt, or 37.5%, to $4.5/mt, the company said.
MMC's exports to China in January-June comprised around 42% of Mongolia's total coal exports, according to the country's National Statistics Office.
It produced 8.6 million mt of coking coal in calendar year 2012 from its Ukhaa Khudag mine, which forms part of the Tavan Tolgoi deposit in the Southern Gobi region.
MMC CEO Battsengel Gotov said Wednesday the company remained cautious about the outlook for the coking coal sector but expected a gradual recovery in coal prices over the rest of 2013.
MMC posted a $2.5 million net loss for the calendar year 2012. Mongolia has been losing its share of the Chinese coking coal market this year, particularly to Australian exports. In July, China received 982,472 mt of coking coal from Mongolia and 2.6 million mt from Australia, according to China customs data.
--Paul Bartholomew, paul.bartholomew@platts.com
--Edited by Haripriya Banerjee, haripriya.banerjee@platts.com
The volume of washed coal sales rose 72.1% year on year and accounted for 87.3% of total coal revenues of $247.8 million for the January-July period. It received an average price of $98.7/mt for its washed hard coking coal over the six-month period compared with $138.7/mt in the same period of 2012, MMC said.
Most Mongolian coking coal arrives at the Chinese border unwashed, and is therefore of lower quality, which is one of the reasons the product receives a discount compared with Chinese domestic and seaborne coking coal. MMC has been improving its coal processing operations to be able to provide a washed product, and commissioned a third processing module in June, it said.
The first module began commercial operations in June 2011, and the second in February 2012, an MMC spokeswoman said Wednesday.
"Each of the modules has an annual coal processing capacity of 5 million mt, making a total of 15 million mt/year," she said.
MMC was able to reduce the impact of lower coking coal prices by cutting average production costs for run-of-mine coal by $2.7/mt, or 37.5%, to $4.5/mt, the company said.
MMC's exports to China in January-June comprised around 42% of Mongolia's total coal exports, according to the country's National Statistics Office.
It produced 8.6 million mt of coking coal in calendar year 2012 from its Ukhaa Khudag mine, which forms part of the Tavan Tolgoi deposit in the Southern Gobi region.
MMC CEO Battsengel Gotov said Wednesday the company remained cautious about the outlook for the coking coal sector but expected a gradual recovery in coal prices over the rest of 2013.
MMC posted a $2.5 million net loss for the calendar year 2012. Mongolia has been losing its share of the Chinese coking coal market this year, particularly to Australian exports. In July, China received 982,472 mt of coking coal from Mongolia and 2.6 million mt from Australia, according to China customs data.
--Paul Bartholomew, paul.bartholomew@platts.com
--Edited by Haripriya Banerjee, haripriya.banerjee@platts.com
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