Macarthur said total shipments for the September quarter reached 777,000 tonnes, down from 1.2 million tonnes shipped during the September 2006 quarter.

As a consequence, Macarthur said it has been forced to reduce its sales target from the previous level of 4.5Mtpa to a new target of 4Mt for the 2008 financial year.

"The achievement of the revised shipping target is reliant on best available estimates of the likely Goonyella Coal Chain capacities pre and post the Phase One expansion (due for completion in Jan 2008) and these estimates involve considerable uncertainty," the company said.

Shipments from DBCT for the overall September quarter were at a rate of 41.8Mtpa, well below forecasted capacity of 49.1Mtpa, which is significantly less than the actual contracted export capacity of 61.3Mtpa.

Macarthur said it anticipated the expansion work would be completed by around the end of this calendar year and that throughput at the terminal will increase over the course of 2008. However, the short term impact will be that all users will ship less coal than planned in the current financial year.

Actual production painted a better picture in the September quarter, with the output of saleable coal from Macarthur's Coppabella and Moorvale operations reaching 915,000t, up from the 792,000t produced in the corresponding 2006 quarter.

On September 3, Macarthur began constructing on a new P&H 4100C electric shovel at Coppabella. Valued at approximately $A25 million, the Macarthur said it expects the shovel to be commissioned in January 2008.

The shovel was purchased as part of the owner operator transition to reduce costs at Coppabella Mine, and will replace two large diesel-powered hydraulic excavators, significantly reducing the amount of diesel fuel used at the mine.

The shovel will remove overburden when commissioned. Recruitment of the workforce to operate the machine has commenced. The required training programs for the new workforce are also being implemented.

Also at Coppbella, the first of a new six-truck fleet valued at $25 million has arrived onsite and been put to use, with the other five trucks scheduled to be delivered to the mine over the next six weeks.

The company has also purchased a 5DT virtual reality truck simulator as part of a partnership with the Mining Industry Skills Centre. The year-long pilot study represents a $250,000 commitment by Macarthur.