Peabody Energy has warned its global coal output is unlikely to change this year because the recently acquired Macarthur Coal mines are not up to industry standard.
While posting a 5.9 per cent increase in fourth quarter earnings Peabody said yesterday it had a lot of work to do on Macarthur’s operations.
“The mines were not being operated to sustainable industry standards, we’ve chosen to address this issue head on,” Peabody chief executive Gregory Boyce said.
Last year Peabody completed a $US5.05 billion takeover of Macarthur Coal to increase its exposure to Asia.
According to Dow Jones Newswires Peabody said poor weather conditions, partly from last year’s floods, had also caused delays at the Macarthur operations.
Peabody said around 12 million cubic metres of waste material had to be removed from Macarthur’s operations to bring the mines up to speed.
It said it was planning to move about 90 per cent of the waste in the coming year.