Glencore to shut all Australian coal mines for three weeks as prices fall

Mining giant Glencore will shut down its Australian coal operations for three weeks due to an oversupply of the commodity.

The three week shut down will be carried out across all of Glencore’s Australian coal operations in December. Glencore said the move was driven by the current oversupply of coal, which has hurt prices of the commodity.

Glencore owns 13 coal mines across NSW and Queensland, which produced more than 80 million tonnes of thermal and coking coal last year and employed around 8,600 people. The shutdown will see the company’s coal production cut by around five million tonnes.

“This is a considered management decision given the current oversupply situation and reduces the need to push incremental sales into an already weak pricing environment,” Glencore said in a statement.

But the company said it was confident demand for coal would grow and the oversupply would be addressed over the medium term.

“We remain confident in demand growth for our products and believe that the supply and demand balance will be restored in the medium term,” it said.

theguardian.com