standby for a 1,500m writedown by WES, page-5

Geezus, I've just read today's update from WES and c.coal is f....ed, and seriously. I keep a closeish eye on coal prices esp coking coal and before opening the ann i estimated a drop of 2% i.e. about $2. I'm way out by a factor of 7! Plus coal prod across the 3 mines is down along with increases in production costs due to big increase in overburden (Currah) and poorer grades/adverse weather at Bengalla.

When i read today's headline re BHP taking a 2.5billion impairment hit.... I assumed it was across its operations incl coal and IO. But it's just on its shale oil ops alone! plus this is the 2nd monster writedown taken by BHP on just this one part of its many operations.

Hence, I'm sticking with my forecast re a 1.%B impairment hit by WES re its coal mines.

PS. Be interesting to see what size impairment RIO are willing to make re their huge IO ops. They took a 30B writedown (from memory) on their Alcan assets a couple of yrs ago.

WES is top notch company. They've given Woolworths a hard lesson in retail. I'm just waiting for right opportunity to come along b4 buying.