By Nathan Richardson

October 19, 2017 - Australian South32's thermal coal production slumped in the July-September quarter, following maintenance work at its South African assets and a suspension in Australia, the company said Thursday in its quarterly results.

In total, South32 produced 7.01 million mt of thermal coal during the September quarter, down 14% year on year and 9% from April-June, the results showed.

At its South Africa Energy Coal business, the miner's thermal coal production fell 14% year on year and 10% quarter on quarter to 6.69 million mt.

The South African total was made up of 3.79 million mt of domestic sales, down 15% year on year and 4% quarter on quarter, and 2.75 million mt of export sales, down 5% on the year and 10% on the quarter.

The declines came as South32 completed planned dragline maintenance, relocated mobile equipment at the Wolvekrans-Middelburg Complex and continued to deplete existing pits, it said.

"Following prior weather-related delays, the development of new mining areas at the WMC is proceeding according to plan and our FY18 [July 2017-June 2018] production guidance remains unchanged at 27.5 [million mt]," it said.

South32 said export sales were lower, as congestion at Richards Bay Coal Terminal in South Africa was not fully cleared in the September quarter.

Its thermal coal production in Australia, which comes via its Illawarra Metallurgical Coal business, slumped 27% year on year and rose 5% from the June quarter to 325,000 mt in the September period, it said.

Production in Australia was impacted due to the suspension of the Appin mine in late June, because of high gas levels, and it remained suspended during the September quarter. It restarted production last week.

Fiscal 2017-2018 (July-June) production guidance will be provided "in due course," South32 said.