Cerrejon says finding it tough to reach 34mt this year

Colombia’s top-coal-producer Cerrejon on Monday said its output targets for this calendar year will likely be missed.

Cerrejon, a joint venture between Anglo American, BHP Billiton and Glencore Xstrata, production target for 2013 was 34 million tonnes, but a month-long strike and multiple bombings of its railway infrastructure including two in the space of ten days last month, are making that difficult to achieve.

Cerrejon, which accounts for 40% of Colombia’s coal exports, suffered seven attacks blamed on Farc rebels on its main export railway to Puerto Bolivar in 2012.

Colombia’s coal sector has had a turbulent 2013 – Cerrejon, the world’s 4th largest exporter, was hit by a month-long strike in February followed by a seven week stoppage at Colombia’s No. 2 miner, Drummond starting in July.

Comments