H share Yanzhou Coal Mining is upbeat about this year's performance on the back of a rise in coal prices and expanded production volume after last year's slowdown. The mainland-based coal miner expected the Jining No 3 mine acquired in January to boost its sales volume by 19 per cent to 32 million tonnes this year and projected the average price to increase about 7 per cent, according to UBS Warburg and Salomon Smith Barney's recent reports. Yanzhou Coal was reported indicating the full-year selling price for its product was likely to fall by about 8 per cent last year. UBS Warburg estimated the coal price might have dropped by an average of 10.5 per cent. The turnaround in price is expected this year due to recently concluded negotiations between the Australian coal producers and Japanese users, and China's increasing domestic demand as well as the mainland government's efforts to cut national production. The Australian-Japanese negotiation this month resulted in an 8 per cent price rise in hard coking coal. In the domestic market, the H share landed contracts in a national trade fair last month to provide about 33.2 million tonnes of coal, compared with 26.5 million tonnes last year. The received orders also meant one million tonnes more than the company's annual production target for this year.
