The Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX: WHC) share price is down 3% today and flat over the course of calendar year 2018. The coal miner's share price performance reflects a largely flat coal price over the course of the year, with hard coking coal prices hitting US$188 per tonne and metallurgical coal prices at US$129 a tonne for the quarter ending September 30 2018.
For the fiscal year ending June 30 2019 Whitehaven reports that it's still on track to sell between 22 million to 23 million tonnes of coal as strong demand for high-quality coal from Asian countries in particular continues to boost its profits and coal prices.
In fact Whitehaven claimed the US$117.51 average thermal coal price for the September quarter was the highest quarterly average price for 7 years and highest Australian dollar price in 10 years.
Like other commodities, coal is sold in US dollars so Whitehaven benefits as the Australian dollar falls as it receives more for its product at the same time as most of its production costs are in Australian dollars.
In fact despite today's falls the Whitehaven share price is up around 130% plus dividends in the past five years. In the last 12 months it has paid $595 million to shareholders in dividends alone.
