Damaged rail in the state has been repaired, but heavy rainfall can still overcome haul roads and intermittently halt coal mining activities.
While storm clouds typically start to disappear during April, the national weather bureau is forecasting a few days of showers ahead from this weekend.
The possibility of an extended wet season poses additional problems as stockpiles shrink, with Macarthur noting that total rainfall for Moranbah last month reached 125mm.
This might seem insignificant when compared to the horrifically high total rainfall of 350mm which struck the Bowen Basin town in December, but it is still more than three times the 10-year historic average for March.
In a presentation at the Deutsche Bank Coal and Iron Ore Conference, Macarthur chief financial officer Graham Yerbury said the state’s entire coal chain was running at low stockpiles.
The company observed that throughput at the Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal was down because of limited coal availability, despite a “relatively benign” amount of rainfall in February.
Yet Macarthur is expecting congestion at the port once the Bowen Basin recovers from weather delays.
Its Coppabella and Moorvale mines have been operating on a stop-start basis because of the wet weather but the company is maintaining a sales target of 4.1-4.3 million tonnes for this financial year, pending no significant further disruptions.
Shares in Macarthur closed down 3.2% to $11.85 yesterday.
