UNIVERSAL Coal, an Australian-listed company operating in South Africa, upgraded its expected pre-tax earnings for its 2018 by 27% to A$70m owing to increased sales production at its Kangala mine and higher production sales at another.
Total production for the year would be 4.7 million tonnes (Mt) compared to a previous forecast for the year of 4.6Mt. Of expected production, about 2.9Mt is attributable to Universal Coal. Kangala improved projected sales tonnes by 150,000, the company said.
The firm’s Clydesdale Colliery (NCC), purchased from Exxaro Resources last year, achieved 14% more than its projected sales tonnes for the year having received about A$27 of revenue per export tonne more than projected for the six months from January. The increase in revenue contributed an additional A$12.2m of revenue to the financial results for the last six months, it said.
Operational costs remained “in line” whilst the company also benefited from a A$2.6m foreign exchange gain owing to the increase in rand to Australian dollar exchange rate over the period January to June 2018. Universal Coal’s final results will be released by mid-September 2018, the company said.
