Production of met coal is set to increase by 4% in the 2014-15 financial year to 47Mt as the ramp up of Caval Ridge mine in the Bowen Basin is completed.

That $US1.9 billion ($A2 billion) project has been completed ahead of schedule and under budget – something of a rare occurrence in resources projects of late.

Queensland Coal achieved record production and sales volumes in the 2014 financial year supported by strong performance across its operations.

This included first production from Caval Ridge, the successful ramp-up of Daunia and record production at peak Downs, Saraji, South Walker Creek and Poitrel.

A sustainable increase in truck and wash-plant utilisation rates underpinned a further improvement in productivity across the business.

Illawara Coal production fell by 5% in the 2014 financial year to 7.5Mt.

An extended outage at the Dendrobium mine because of a roof fall hurt performance, mainly in the September 2013 quarter.

As a result of continued coal price weakness, the Australian dollar’s persistent strength and the recognition of redundancy and restructuring charges, Queensland Coal was marginally earnings positive, before interest and tax, during the second half of the 2014 financial year.

On the energy coal front, production for the 2014 financial year of 73Mt was pretty much unchanged from the previous period.

This performance was underpinned by a fifth consecutive annual production record at New South Wales Energy Coal and record volumes at Cerrejon.

Extended outages at both a local utility and the Richards Bay Coal Terminal led to lower production at South Africa Energy Coal, while production declined at Navajo Coal in the US after the permanent closure of three of the five power units at the Four Corners Power Plant.

Energy coal production for the 2015 financial year is expected to remain broadly unchanged at 73Mt.

A drought in the La Guajira region of Colombia is expected to constrain Cerrejon production for the rest of the 2014 calendar year given the requirement to manage dust emissions.

The port expansion associated with the Cerrejon P40 project is being commissioned, although operational issues are expected to constrain capacity at about 35 million tonnes per annum in the medium-term.

Apart from the Caval Ridge other projects BHP is undertaking in the coal space there are the $1.5 billion Hay Point stage three expansion and $845 million Appin Area 9 projects.

The Hay Point expansion is to increase capacity at the Queensland port from 44Mtpa to 55Mtpa and reduce storm vulnerability. That project is on its revised schedule and budget and about 87% complete.

The Appin Area 9 project is designed to maintain Illawarra Coal’s production capacity with a replacement mining domain and capacity to produce 3.5Mtpa of coking coal.

According to BHP the project is on schedule and on budget and about 67% finished.

BHP Billiton CEO Andrew Mackenzie said the company’s focus on productivity had resulted in an improvement in its major businesses.

“Western Australia iron ore and Queensland coal annual production exceeded guidance with both rising by more than 20% as we delivered more tonnes from existing infrastructure and growth projects ahead of schedule,” he said.

Mackenzie said he expected the broader productivity improvements across the group would underpin stronger metallurgical coal volumes.