Glencore's Australian coking coal production for the first nine months of 2018 rose to 5.4 million mt, up 20% from 4.5 million mt a year earlier, the company said Friday.
The increase in production was up as the previous year was affected by industrial action, also the acquisition of the Queensland-based Hail Creek mine contributed about 900,000 mt in July-September, Glencore said.
Glencore agreed to acquire Rio Tinto's 82% interest in the Hail Creek mine in March, as well as Rio's 71.2% interest in the Valeria coal resource, for a total cash consideration of $1.7 billion. It completed the acquisition in August.
In 2017, the Hail Creek mine produced 9.4 million mt of saleable coal, comprising 5.25 million mt of hard coking coal and 4.13 million mt of thermal coal. It exports via the Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal.
Glencore's semi-soft coal production stood at 2.5 million mt during the nine months, which was down 22% from 3.2 million mt the year earlier, it said.
Glencore produces semi-soft and coking coal from Australia's Hunter Valley, which is exported from the Port of Newcastle, and from the Queensland-based Bowen Basin, which gets shipped to the seaborne market via the ports of Abbot Point, Dalrymple Bay and Gladstone.
