Yancoal’s strong financial position sees it ready to consider opportunities arising from the coal market downturn, according to chair of the executive committee and acting chief executive officer Ning Yue.

Yancoal finished the June quarter with a cash balance of $1.8 billion after paying a fully franked final dividend of $687mn (A$0.52 per share) in April.

“We are beginning to see supply-side response to the lower coal prices, which aligns with our view that
coal indices are well below marginal cost on the global cost curve,” Mr Yue said.

“We anticipate further supply-side reductions from higher-cost producers, contributing to a potential recovery in coal price indices, as was the case with past coal price cycles.”

He was commenting as the Chinese-owned mining group, with multiple coal operations in Queensland and New South Wales, delivered its best first-half operational performance of the past five years.

Guidance for 2025 stands at 35-39Mt attributable saleable production and the company said output for the first half of the year was ahead of the mid-point.

The company reported an 11 per cent drop in the realised thermal coal price in the second quarter and a 10 per cent drop in realised metallurgical coal price compared to Q1.

In Queensland, Yancoal owns or has an interest in the Yarrabee and Middlemount operations.