Peabody blames economic downturn after slashing 400 jobs at Queensland and NSW coal mines Peabody will shed another 400 jobs at its Queensland and NSW mines. PEABODY Energy has cut another 400 positions from its Queensland and NSW coalmines just weeks after off-loading 450 contractors. The cuts will affect 170 employees because many of the 400 positions have not been filled. Peabody said the decision was made in response to global economic challenges, but unions said the company was still increasing production. About 7000 jobs have been lost in Queensland since the end of the mining boom. But the industry is still in the middle of a production boom, with Queensland coal exports up 15 per cent for the first six months of the year. However, new mines coming on line now, such as BHP Billiton's joint-venture Daunia project, are likely to push higher-cost mines to the wall. The Queensland Resources Council is also tipping more job losses and mine shutdowns, although jobs in coal seam gas are replacing many of those lost in coal. A Peabody spokesman said the cuts were made to "align the company's workforce size with other cost-reduction activities," as part of the company's cost management. "We understand this decision affects our employees, families and their local communities, and we are supporting impacted employees and our workforce through this change," the spokesman said. Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union secretary Andrew Vickers said Peabody's decision added weight to the union's demands that mining communities were not to be made to pay the price for investors demanding the same returns as those seen at the height of the boom. "At the boom's height, companies like Peabody were falling over themselves to take advantage of the record market prices, and in doing so allowed their costs to blow out," Mr Vickers said. With the coal price coming off the boil, the only way companies can keep investors happy is by ramping up production and slashing costs. Companies like Peabody haven't yet reined in costs, so they're taking the easy option and attacking jobs in the short term. The Queensland Resources Council said the dire situation of the coal industry meant the major political parties needed to put their case for reform ahead of the election. QRC chief executive Michael Roche said the industry wanted answers on carbon emission reductions, taxation, environmental approvals and exploration. He said Queensland's resource diversity and strategic production responses to coal price collapses were helping soften the full impact of the global economic downturn. "In an all-out effort to spread high fixed costs over more tonnes, the Queensland coal sector as a whole is delivering some extraordinary uplifts in production and exports that will be confirmed at the end of the June quarter," Mr Roche said. New production capacity has come online, but we will inevitably see more job cuts and more mines or parts of mines put on care and maintenance. Coupled with high structural costs, the added burden of carbon costs and the likelihood of an oversupplied global coal market well into 2014, coal companies will continue to take prudent cost cutting measures to ensure their viability.