Yanzhou Coal Mining Co, China's fourth-largest coal producer, said it will snap up more coal assets in Australia to achieve its five-year sales target from its favorite overseas production base.

"We will acquire more coal assets in Australia. Currently we are researching some projects and will disclose more details when appropriate," Wu Yuxiang, director of Yanzhou Coal, said on Monday.

The dual Hong Kong and Shanghai-listed company also said it has agreed to buy Australian coal miner Syntech Resources Pty Ltd for A$202.5 million ($211 million). In 2009, Yanzhou Coal paid $3.5 billion for Felix Resources Ltd, China's biggest takeover of an Australian company.

Wu said resource-rich Australia is the "primary consideration" when making acquisitions since it can leverage experience that Yancoal Australia Ltd, its fully-owned subsidiary, has gained. He added that the country is relatively consistent in its policy-making and that the company will also consider targets in Canada and Mongolia.

The company has set a target of selling 150 million metric tons of coal by 2015, one third or 50 million metric tons of which are expected to be generated from Australian mines. The gap between secured capacity, namely Felix and Syntech, and the target is around 20 million metric tons, according to Wu.

In the first six months of 2011, Yancoal Australia sold 4.73 million metric tons of coal, falling short of its yearly sales target of 12 million metric tons, said Wu, who expected that sales could pick up in the second half as Japan needs fuel to rebuild its earthquake-hit economy.

Yanzhou Coal reported its interim result on August 19, with first-half net profit surging 91 percent to 5.18 billion yuan ($0.8 billion) on higher coal prices and sales volume. That compares with a mean estimate of 4.87 billion yuan in a survey of four analysts compiled by Bloomberg.

The unit price at its Shandong province headquarters, accounting for 60 percent of total sales, rose 7.9 percent to 677 yuan per metric ton in the first half compared with a year ago.

Higher wages and raw material expenses pushed up its costs by 12 percent at the headquarters to 286 yuan per metric ton, exceeding the 10 percent cost rise target set at the start of the year, said Wu, who pledged to take more measures in the second half to control costs.

Shares of Yanzhou Coal fell 9.1 percent, the largest drop in more than two years, to close at HK$21 on Monday trading. The benchmark Hang Seng Index gained 0.5 percent.

In a research note released on Monday by Credit Suisse, the security house sees the risk of lower margins in the second half compared with the first half, given lower semi-coking coal prices and seasonally higher costs. Negative earnings momentum could put pressure on the stock, it said.

joyli@chinadailyhk.com

By Joy Li (China Daily)

(HK Edition 08/23/2011 page2)