The Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX: WHC) share price is on the move on Thursday following the release of its quarterly update.
At the time of writing, the coal miner's shares are up 5% to $1.84.
How did Whitehaven Coal perform?
For the three months ended 31 December, Whitehaven Coal achieved managed run-of-mine (ROM) production of 5.1Mt. This was up an impressive 64% on the prior corresponding period.
From this, total quarterly managed coal sales came in at 4.5Mt, which was in line with the same period last year. Management noted that the outage of one of Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group's (NCIG) two ship loaders has resulted in 550kt of equity sales slipping from December 2020 into January 2021.
Whitehaven realised an average price of US$62 per tonne for its thermal coal in the quarter. While this was 8% lower than the quarterly globalCoal Newcastle Index average, the company notes that its prices lag the average when rapid changes occur.
Pleasingly, the globalCoal Newcastle Index coal price averaged US$67 per tonne for the quarter before finishing it above US$80 per tonne. The improved pricing environment reflects increased seaborne thermal coal demand, which is being driven largely by an Asian economic recovery accelerating post the initial impact of COVID-19.
The company's CEO, Paul Flynn, commented: "During the latter part of the December quarter there was a strong rebound in pricing and we are increasingly optimistic that underlying market dynamics are supportive of continued improvement in this area."
Looking ahead, management has tightened its guidance range for FY 2021. Whitehaven now expects FY 2021 managed coal sales (excluding purchased coal) to be 19Mt to 20Mt, up from 18.5Mt to 20Mt.
It made the move after "seeing much more consistent and better performance across production and overburden management."
