Coking Coal Price Rally Unlocks Earnings Rebound Potential
发布时间:2026-05-29 来源:华泰证券
Pingdingshan Tianan Coal Mining (PTCM) has released its 2025 annual report and 1Q26 results. For 2025, revenue was RMB20,532mn (-32.20% YoY), and the attributable net profit (NP) was RMB231mn (-89.87% YoY), missing our forecast of RMB846mn, mainly because the company’s ASP transmission of market coal prices fell short of our expectations. For 1Q26, revenue/attributable NP were RMB6,338/120mn (+17.37/-20.86% YoY, -10.89/+348.37% QoQ). As coking coal market prices rebounded in 1Q26, profitability improved notably on a sequential basis. We think that 2H25 marked a cyclical earnings trough. Going forward, we expect the company to benefit from simultaneous volume and price recovery, driving its earnings upside potential, while continued progress in external expansion projects could help unlock its long-term growth potential. Maintain BUY.
Volume & price both subdued; cost control partially offset pressure
For 2025, PTCM’s raw coal output increased slightly by 2.14% YoY to 28.12mn tonnes. However, due to weak industry demand, commercial coal sales volume shrank by 11.07% YoY to 24.19mn tonnes. Meanwhile, the blended ASP for commercial coal dropped sharply by 29.12% from RMB1,033/tonne in 2024 to RMB732/tonne, with simultaneous declines in both volume and price directly weighing on core profitability. Cost control achieved notable results, with the average unit cost of commercial coal decreasing by 16.37% YoY to RMB588/tonne, partially offsetting pricing pressure. Among product categories, average selling prices of mixed coal/processed coal/other washed coal were RMB429/1,261/100 per tonne (-20.0/-28.0/-45.8% YoY), while average costs were RMB384/969/99 per tonne (-16.6/-17.0/-45.1% YoY), indicating substantial profit pressure on processed coal in 2025. Affected by weak industry demand and declining sales, inventories of mixed coal/processed coal/other mixed coal changed by +187.88/+257.84/-12.66% YoY. Looking to 2026, as coking coal prices have recently rebounded and stabilized, we think that 2H25 likely represented the cyclical earnings bottom. We think that gradual inventory destocking and sales recovery could drive earnings growth through simultaneous volume and price improvement.
Earnings forecasts and valuation
As the company’s coal ASP transmission of market prices in 2025 was weaker than expected, we trim our 2026/2027 ASP forecasts. Meanwhile, based on the company’s 2026 production plan, we raise our 2026/2027 sales volume forecasts, correspondingly increasing our attributable NP forecasts by 18.4/2.7% to RMB1,514/1,860mn. We introduce our 2028 attributable NP forecast of RMB1,862mn, with EPS of RMB0.61/0.75/0.75 for 2026/2027/2028. Considering the company's relatively stable dividend expectations and the increasing importance of dividend yield in market valuation, we continue to adopt the DDM valuation methodology. Assuming that the company maintains a 60% payout ratio, and lowering our WACC to 3.9% (previous: 5.6%) due to the sector valuation re-rating, while maintaining our perpetual growth assumption of 0%, we raise our target price to RMB12.41 (previous: RMB10.00). Maintain BUY.
Risks: Greater supply-side disruptions than we expect; slower asset expansion than we expect.