Australia's Whitehaven Coal logs quarterly output rise, expects higher long-term prices (updated)

Whitehaven Coal

28/04/2026 24:54

Rewrites throughout, adds share move in paragraph 2

Q3 managed ROM coal production of 9.5 million metric tons

Shares rose as much as 3.4%

FY26 forecast unchanged for coal production and sales

April 28 (Reuters) - Whitehaven Coal WHC.AX met market expectations for third-quarter production on Tuesday, helped by its New South Wales open-cut mines, and forecast higher long-term prices for both metallurgical coal and thermal coal.

Shares of Australia's top independent coal miner rose as much as 3.4% to A$8.02 after the results, marking their biggest intraday gain since April 13, placing the stock among the day's top performers on the broader index .AXJO.

The Sydney-based coal miner reported managed run-of-mine (ROM) coal production of 9.5 million metric tons for the three months ended March 31, in line with the Visible Alpha consensus estimate. This compares with 9.2 million tons a year earlier.

Supply constraints in Australia and steady buying from India's steel sector have boosted demand for metallurgical coal, Whitehaven's largest revenue contributor.

Whitehaven said a structural shortfall in global production and increased seaborne demand from India are expected to underpin metallurgical coal prices in the long term.

The company earned an average of A$207 ($148.77) per ton of coal sold in the quarter, compared with A$190 a ton in the previous quarter and A$203 a ton a year earlier.

The miner's New South Wales operations posted a 15% higher output in the quarter ended March 26, while production at its Queensland operations, which includes the Blackwater and Daunia mines it bought from BHP Group BHP.AX in 2023, fell about 9% due to weather-related disruptions.

The company also said that strong long‑term demand for high‑quality seaborne thermal coal, combined with supply shortfalls from underinvestment in new mines and the depletion of existing supply, should continue to support prices.

"Higher thermal coal prices are more than offsetting the impact of higher diesel costs," said CEO Paul Flynn, referring to the recent surge in prices from the Middle East conflict.

Whitehaven added that its FY26 guidance remains unchanged and reiterated that it is on track to finish firmly in the upper half of that range.

($1 = 1.3914 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Sruthi Narasimha Chari and Anjali Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed, Jonathan Ananda and Rashmi Aich)

((anjali.singh2@thomsonreuters.com;Sruthinarasimha.chari@thomsonreuters.com))