Factbox: Corporate Australia burdened by Omicron surge

MGX Resources

21/01/2022 04:23

(Adds Whitehaven Coal, Mount Gibson Iron)
    Jan 21 (Reuters) - Australia has seen a record surge in
COVID-19 infections due to the Omicron variant, which has
strained supply chains, overwhelmed hospitals, and clouded the
outlook of firms that were just recovering from the impact of
the Delta outbreak.
    Companies have had to shelve plans to ramp up their
business, flag a hit to earnings, or earmark additional costs,
as Omicron has thrown a spanner in the works of businesses that
sought a brighter outlook for 2022.
    Here is a list of companies that have a warned of a hit from
the outbreak:
 
 
    Whitehaven Coal  WHC.AX 
    Australia's biggest independent coal miner cut its 2022
managed run-of-mine coal production forecast, partly due to
pandemic-led labour shortages. It said Omicron was hurting
production in the country and there was material uncertainty
about how much more impact COVID-19 would have.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2U047O
 
 
    Mount Gibson Iron  MGX.AX 
    The iron ore miner said travel restrictions, particularly
inter-state border closures and quarantine restrictions for
certain fly-in-fly-out workers, had limited the availability of
skilled personnel, which continued to significantly challenge
its operations.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nASX9ThcBW
    
    BHP  BHP.AX 
    The global miner said 2022 copper production will be towards
the lower end of its forecast and cut its annual metallurgical
coal output outlook, partly due to labour constraints from
COVID-19. The company expects workforce absenteeism because of
the Omicron variant to continue into the early part of the
second half of 2022.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2TY46B
    
    Rio Tinto  RIO.AX 
    The world's largest iron ore miner forecast
weaker-than-expected 2022 iron ore shipments, as prolonged
COVID-19 disruptions led to labour shortages and production
delays from the new greenfields mine at the Gudai-Darri project.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2TX1OD
    
    Wesfarmers  WES.AX 
    The retail conglomerate said rising Omicron cases had led to
weaker trading conditions over Christmas and subdued traffic to
its stores in the first half of January, while also disrupting
its supply chain and stock availability as employees at its
distribution centres missed work due to COVID-19.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nASX4m8qGn
    
    Qantas Airways  QAN.AX 
    The airline pared about a third of its planned domestic and
international capacity for the March quarter to better match
travel demand after a rise in COVID-19 infections.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2TT09U
    
    Virgin Australia
    The airline said it would reduce capacity across its network
by around 25% for part of January and for February due to
reduced travel demand and staff being required to isolate.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2TQ06I
    
    Bega Cheese  BGA.AX 
    The cheese maker issued a profit warning that sent its
shares tumbling, as it said the impact from COVID-19 had been
"extensive and significant".  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2T73TV
    
    Inghams Group  ING.AX 
The poultry producer said the rapid spread of Omicron was partly
responsible for impacting supply chain, operations and sales. It
said staff shortages due to COVID-19 were hurting its production
volume and operational efficiency.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2TQ2KX

 (Compiled by Indranil Sarkar and Shashwat Awasthi; Edited by
Shounak Dasgupta)
 ((Shashwat.Awasthi@tr.com))