Contract prices have continued to fall in 2015 with Wesfarmers just mentioning the percentage declines in value for the past two quarterly deals, not the prices struck.

Spot coking coal prices have also recently plunged well below $US90 a tonne, significantly south of the $109.5/t hard coking coal benchmark of the June quarter, although the falling Australian dollar has provided some relief.

“In response to a further deterioration in the coal price and general market conditions Wesfarmers Curragh has advised its workforce of a number of changes to rosters at the mine,” Wesfarmers said.

“The changes will involve some employees moving to five-day eight-hour rosters. Consultation on a new seven-day 8.5 hour roster has also commenced. The changes reflect the need to further reduce mine site costs in order to remain sustainable in the longer term.

“Since the downturn in the coal market some 18 months ago Curragh has made it a priority to protect the jobs of its full-time permanent wages workforce and this most recent change is consistent with that approach.”

The Curragh mine has the capacity to produce 8.5 million tonnes per annum of saleable met coal (hard coking, semi coking and PCI grades) and 3Mtpa of domestic thermal coal.