Melbourne (Platts)--6May2011/612 am EDT/1012 GMT

Australian rail freight operator QR National on Friday forecast its coal haulage volume for the July 2010-June 2011 fiscal year would be cut by a further 10 million mt due to the impact of excessive rain and flooding in the eastern states of Queensland and New South Wales.

The company earlier cut its full year guidance by 25 million mt on February 28.

"The impact of the Queensland floods, Cyclone Yasi and continued unseasonable wet weather has continued to affect the supply of coal to be hauled," the company said in a statement. "Recent announcements by a number of customers have confirmed a slower than expected full recovery of coal supplies."

QR National hauled 260 million mt of freight in the July 2009-June 2010 fiscal year, 200 million mt of it coal, the company says on its website.

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In Friday's statement, QR National said that while coal tonnages hauled in March and April were "broadly in line" with expectations, "in recent weeks the company has hauled approximately 1 million mt/week below expectation."

"... this could result in a further 10 million mt loss for the remainder of the year," the company said in the statement.

QR National said it was continuing to work on "a broad range of transformation initiatives" in a bid to partly offset the financial impact of the coal haulage reduction, without disclosing details.

"The rate of improvement moving into the 2012 financial year is uncertain and there may be opportunities for catchup, depending on the circumstances of individual customers," QR National said in the statement.

--Wendy Wells, newsdesk@platts.com