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Hard coking coal to lift Anglo American growth

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By Alex MacDonald

GLOBALLY diversified miner Anglo American plans to invest heavily in hard coking coal in Canada and Australia to deliver a compounded annual growth rate of 12 per cent between 2010 and 2020 in terms of production capacity, higher than its peers, the company says.

Seamus French, chief executive of the company’s Metallurgical Coal division, told analysts at a seminar in London yesterday that Anglo American was the third largest overseas supplier of metallurgical coal after BHP Billiton and Teck Resources.

Mr French expects Anglo American will become the second largest supplier by

2020 based on available information about its peers’ growth plans.

Anglo American’s hard coking coal capacity growth rate will outstrip BHP’s 6 per cent compounded annual growth rate and Teck’s 3 per cent across the same period.

The company will focus on maintaining its share in existing markets of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, as well as increasing its sales further in China and India, two key growth markets where customers were forecast to import greater amounts of hard coking coal, said Norman Mbazima, chief executive of Anglo American’s Thermal Coal division.