Coal & Allied: 2010 Coal Sales Fall 0.6%, 18.7 Million Tons

Coal sales by Coal & Allied Industries Ltd. (CNA.AU) fell 0.6% in the year to the end of December 2010 as the company struggled to deal with the wet weather that has swept Australia's east coast in recent months.

Coal & Allied, one of the largest producers in the Hunter Valley coal-producing region of New South Wales state, said Thursday its share of coal sales fell from 18.8 million tons in 2009 to 18.7 million tons last year.

However, saleable production in the December quarter rose 34% on the previous quarter and 7% on the previous year to 5.7 million tons.

Coal & Allied said 13% of calendar time was lost to wet weather in the three months to the end of December, similar to the level lost the previous quarter.

The miner's strip ratio--a measure of the proportion of coal to waste material removed--also worsened, rising 15% during 2010 over the previous year.

Coal production was shifted from the thermal coal used only in power stations towards semi-soft coking coal, a variety that can be used either in energy production or as a blend with higher-grade coking coals in steelmaking.

Coking coal prices have risen markedly as a result of heavy rains in the Bowen Basin of neighbouring Queensland state over the past month.

Semi-soft coking coal rose from 16.9% of all production in 2009 to 18.6% last year.

-By David Fickling, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]