What’s new: Yancoal Australia Ltd., the overseas arm of Chinese state-owned Yanzhou Coal Mining, saw its profits increase by 7% year-on-year in the first half of 2020, even as its operating earnings plummeted.
Yancoal made A$605 million ($434 million) in profits thanks to a one-off A$653 million gain from its bargain acquisition of an additional 10% of eastern Australia’s Moolarben coal mine.
The company’s revenue dropped 8% year-on-year to A$4.46 billion and its operating earnings before interest and tax slumped 85% to A$95 million, according to an interim report filed to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
What’s the background: Yancoal Australia told investors it is on track to deliver on a production target of 36 million tons of coal, a goal it set earlier this year, but the coronavirus pandemic is still weighing heavily on the company’s performance.
“We expect that the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to have an impact on the international coal markets and our revenue profile for the remainder of 2020,” Yancoal Australia CEO David Moult said in the report.
Contact reporter Lu Yutong (yutonglu@caixin.com) and editor Marcus Ryder (marcusryder@caixin.com)
