FY Profit: $79.4m, from $156.8m loss
Revenue: $1.05bn, down 3 per cent
Final Dividend: 7c a share
New Hope has swung to an annual profit and reinstated a fully franked final dividend, despite lower coal output as thermal coal prices recovered strongly from Covid-19 lows over the year while costs were reigned in.
The miner said it produced 9.6Mt of saleable coal in the 2021 financial year, down from 11.3Mt last year, while gross revenue from coal sales slipped 4 per cent to just over $1bn.
New Hope says the decrease in coal sales and revenue was primarily due to its New Acland coal mine, as it "transitions into care and maintenance."
But overall profit was boosted by an increase in averaged realised coal prices to $101.36 per tonne in 2021, up from $91.54 per tonne in 2020.
"Thermal coal prices recovered strongly from 2020 levels, reaching 10-year highs which materialised into strong revenue generation over the second half of the 2021 financial year," the miner says in statement.
"The quarter 4 average realised price received was A$122.13/t."
Underlying free on board costs – which measures the cost of getting coal to port – fell from $64 per tonne to $63.70 per tonne.
Margin per tonne of coal rose to $37.66 from $27.54.
