https://www.miningweekly.com

Wescoal ‘comfortable’ with coal price from Eskom

Wescoal CEO Waheed Sulaiman

Wescoal CEO Waheed Sulaiman outlines future plans to Mining Weekly Online’s Martin Creamer. Photographs: Duane Daws. Video and video editing: Nicholas Boyd.

Wescoal CEO Waheed Sulaiman

Photo by Duane Daws

12th July 2016

By: Martin Creamer

Creamer Media Editor

  

Font size: - +

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Coal mining and trading company Wescoal, which sells 80% of its coal to Eskom, is comfortable with the price it receives from South Africa’s State-owned electricity utility.

“We think it’s a fair price, both to Wescoal and to Eskom. I understand Eskom’s challenges around managing costs and the costs that flow to the general South African public,” says Wescoal CEO Waheed Sulaiman, whose company has lifted its black ownership to 40%, from 30% last year.

“Our target is to be well over 50% black-owned,” Sulaiman disclosed in his video interview with Creamer Media’s Mining Weekly Online. (See attached).

The 200-employee concern, which has a market capitalisation of R300-million, posted a 76.1% surge in headline earnings a share to 27.1c each in the 12 months to March 31, when earnings a share rose 66.6% to 26.2c.

In the next five to eight years, the former BHP Billiton strategy and business development employee is planning to grow Wescoal’s run-of-mine production to eight-million tonnes of coal a year, from three-million tonnes currently.

In time, he intends earmarking one-million tonnes a year for seaborne exportation.

A source of encouragement to the rand-reporting export aspirant is the seeming bottoming out of export prices, which augurs well for the future.

Having successfully raised R52-million equity capital from shareholders last year, Wescoal is now taking steps to raise debt, which it expects to be able to leverage off long-term supply contracts.

The acquisitive company, with several assets and companies in its sights, intends to grow “aggressively” in the medium term.

On the organic growth front, its Elandspruit flagship mine is on the way to producing at a rate of two-million tonnes of coal a year, and its Intibane and Khanyisa collieries are together poised to chip in another one million-tonnes a year.

The company produced 2.8-million tonnes of coal in the 12 months to March 31.

Now fully operational, Elandspruit is already delivering on the initial R200-million invested in it, while Intibane is producing at a rate of 50 000 t a month and Khanyisa is awaiting standard regulatory approvals from the Department of Mineral Resources.

COAL TRADING

A big plus from the company’s coal trading division has been the considerable financial contribution it has been able to make towards the development of Elandspruit.

However, in the current tough domestic environment, the division’s challenge is to arrest margin creep by concentrating its efforts on customers with good credit ratings.

In the 12 months to March 31, Wescoal’s profit after tax jumped 78.8% to R51.8-million on a better-quality debtor book, increased productivity and cut costs.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

Comments

Showroom

Multotec
Multotec

Multotec, recognised industry leaders in metallurgy and process engineering help mining houses across the world process minerals more efficiently,...

VISIT SHOWROOM 
Rio-Carb
Rio-Carb

Our Easy Access Chute concept was developed to reduce the risks related to liner maintenance. Currently, replacing wear liners require that...

VISIT SHOWROOM 

Latest Multimedia

sponsored by

Photo of Martin Creamer
On-The-Air (15/03/2024)
15th March 2024 By: Martin Creamer
Gold, hydrogen, mining boost make headlines
Gold, hydrogen, mining boost make headlines
15th March 2024
Magazine round up | 15 March 2024
Magazine round up | 15 March 2024
15th March 2024

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION







sq:0.128 0.161s - 107pq - 2rq
Subscribe Now