Origin’s big power profit leaves price-capped coal supplier fuming

afr.com:

Soaring profits reported by electricity generators like Origin Energy are “extremely disappointing” according to one of the miners forced by government to sell cheap coal to NSW power stations.

Speaking on the day Origin announced an 83 per cent surge in profits to the highest levels since 2019, Yancoal chief executive David Moult expressed frustration that governments had not imposed more limits on the bills charged by power generators.

Yancoal chief David Moult is not happy with having coal prices capped while coal buyers make super profits. Janie Barrett

Tensions between the coal sector and power generators have run high since state and federal governments intervened in the market earlier this year to compel NSW miners to provide the state’s generators with coal at less than half the prices available in export markets.

Those tensions spilled over on Thursday as Yancoal reported its spend on electricity in the past six months was 156 per cent higher than in the same period of last year.

The extreme surge in Yancoal’s power bill came at the same time it was being forced to sell coal to the likes of Origin and AGL at a capped price of $125 a tonne, as part of the NSW and federal government’s plan to lower electricity bills.

Coal sold in NSW at $125 a tonne dragged down Yancoal’s average received price to a still very high $278 a tonne over the past six months.

Asian buyers were paying more than $400 a tonne for top quality NSW thermal coal in January, but the price had eased to $145.77 a tonne on August 11.

Mr Moult said he did not enjoy selling coal at “below market” prices, while Origin was reporting a big increase in profits.

“It is extremely disappointing,” he said when asked about the profit surge reported by Origin