* Thermal coal prices may follow Asia LNG recovery -CEO
* Harder for coal miners to find funding -CEO(Adds executive comments)
Sept 17 (Reuters) - Australian coal producer New Hope CorpLtd on Tuesday said coal markets would likely remainvolatile in the near term though demand is strong forhigh-quality thermal coal across Asia, as it posted a 41% risein annual net profit.
The firm also forecast lower production volume fromoperations in Queensland state in the year through July due todelayed approvals for its Acland Stage 3 project and the pendingclosure of its Jeebropilly mine. It said it has begun theredundancy process for 150 employees due to the delay.
Higher production at its Bengalla joint venture in New SouthWales state, where it acquired an additional 40% stake duringthe 2019 financial year, boosted annual earnings.
"Coal markets ... are likely to remain volatile in the nearterm however demand for high quality thermal coal remains strongacross Asia," New Hope said in a statement.
Prices for thermal coal have slumped 37% this year<CO-FOBNWC-AU>, however a recent bottoming out of Asianliquefied natural gas prices and emergent recovery this monthsuggests coal prices may follow suit, Chief Executive ShaneStephan said.
"There has been a pick up from July to August of ... 13-14%.You've had a pretty strong correlation between thermal coalpricing and LNG pricing," Stephan told Reuters.
New Hope in the past year signed a $600 million debtfacility to fund its Bengalla purchase and to develop the Aclandmine and Burton project, based on expectations of demand for itshigher-quality thermal coal.
"As a coal producer, it is harder to attract capital. Butone of the reasons for that is the increase in political riskprofile that our industry faces in Australia. It's hard to getapprovals. There's a lot of uncertainty related to that,"Stephan said, declining to identify parties to the loan.
Net profit for the year ended July 31 was A$210.7 million($144.7 million), compared with A$149.5 million last year, NewHope said. Revenue jumped 21%.
Barring one-off expenses, the annual net profit figure wasup 3% at A$268.5 million.
The company declared a final dividend of 9 cents a share,compared with 8 cents in the prior period.
New Hope's share price fell to its lowest in a week beforeparing losses to 2.8% at A$2.44 on the Australian SecuritiesExchange by 0222 GMT.($1 = 1.4616 Australian dollars)(Reporting by Melanie Burton in Sydney and Aby JoseKoilparambil in Bengaluru; Editing by Stephen Coates andChristopher Cushing)