Singapore consortium secures $850m for South32’s Australian coking coal
South32 said in February it had agreed to sell the business in New South Wales state for $1.65 billion.
South32 said on Monday that production of metallurgical coal rose nearly 18% in the third quarter, helped by robust output from its flagship Illawarra mine.
Production of the steel-making ingredient rose to 1.2 million tonnes during the quarter ended March 31, compared with 990,000 tonnes a year earlier.
The figure was in line with a UBS forecast of about 1.2 million tonnes.
South32 also suspended the remaining $121-million of its current on-market share buy-back program, Mining Weekly reported, and lowered its capex guidance for the 2020 financial year to $500-million to conserve cash during the covid-19 outbreak.
South 32’s shares were trading down over 3% late Monday on the ASX. The company has an A$9.6 billion market capitalization.
(By Rashmi Ashok and Shruti Sonal; Editing by Peter Cooney)
Comments