Australia’s South32’s Q1 metallurgical coal output falls on Illawarra bottlenecks

(Reuters) – Diversified miner South32 (OTC:) posted an 18% drop in first-quarter metallurgical coal output on Monday, as production was affected by disruptions at its Illawarra project in New South Wales.

South32, the world’s biggest producer of manganese, is facing operational headwinds at its Illawarra Metallurgical Coal project after the miner undertook an extended planned longwall move at the Dendrobium mine.

Production volumes at the project will be weighted to the second half of fiscal 2024 owing to planned longwall moves across the year, the company added.

The Perth-based miner said production of metallurgical coal, used to make steel, fell to 1.0 million metric tons in the three months to Sept. 30, from 1.3 million metric tons a year earlier.

That was slightly lower than a consensus estimate of 1.1 million metric tons compiled by Visible Alpha.

(This story has been corrected to remove references to industrial action affecting production in paragraphs 1 and 2, and to change the cause of operational problems at Illawarra project to longwall move at Dendrobium mine in paragraph 2)