Our products in society

Our products are the building blocks for many of life’s essentials. We produce commodities in a way that cares for people and the environment, working in partnership with communities, governments and others to create a lasting positive legacy for society.

The natural resources we extract are at the heart of many vital products and services, from the building blocks of new cities to everyday items like cutlery, to the high-precision metals to produce mobile phones or jet engines.

 
About coal

Coal is a plentiful source of energy. Thermal (energy) coal provides a reliable fuel for baseload electricity generation and coking coal is also an important ingredient in the production of steel used to build cities, railways and other vital infrastructure.

Use of coal

Coal is used worldwide in many day-to-day goods and services that we might sometimes take for granted in our modern society – such as electricity generation, steel production and cement manufacturing.

There are two main types of coal, which have different uses:

• Thermal coal – mainly used for electricity generation. 
• Coking coal (or metallurgical coal) - mainly used in the production of steel.

Electricity Coal plays a vital role worldwide in generating electricity – it is hard to imagine our lives without the lights on at home, access to our computer or a mobile phone that is charged. Currently coal accounts for 42% of global electricity fuel, and this is set to rise to 44% by 2030.

Steel Globally around 70% of steel produced relies on coal. Many of the goods and services we rely on in today’s society are dependent on steel – such as healthcare, telecommunications and transport.

Cement Coal is used as an energy source in the cement industry as large amounts of energy are required to produce cement. Cement is critical to the building industry, and is used in many different applications – such as home and office buildings, transport,  the transport or collection of water (such as pipes and damns), agriculture and the production of civil works such as roads, piers and bridges.

Xstrata Coal mines produce a diverse range of thermal, semi-soft and coking coal products which can be selectively blended at port to meet customer needs.

We have an exposure to both export and domestic markets. The export market represents around 90% of our customer base, with the Australian and South African domestic markets the remainder.

Major customers/ consuming regions/industry sectors

We service both domestic and export coal markets with our Australian operations largely supplying the Pacific thermal market and our South African operations largely the Atlantic thermal market. Our Australian metallurgical coals are supplied worldwide.

Pacific Coal Market

We export around 80% of our Australian thermal coal production to major power companies in the Pacific region including Japan, Korea and Taiwan and Mexico. Limited volumes of our Australian thermal coals are also occasionally sold into the Atlantic market.

We are one of the top two suppliers of thermal coal to Japan and Australia’s leading supplier of semi-soft coal, positioning Japan as our largest customer.

The Premium quality hard coking coal produced at the Oaky Creek operations is supplied to major steelmakers throughput Asia, Europe and the Americas.

Atlantic Coal Market

Approximately 75% of our South African thermal coal production is exported, primarily into the Atlantic market where Europe is the major export destination. The major import countries are the United Kingdom, Spain, France and Benelux. Outside of Europe, Israel is Xstrata Coal’s largest market.