⁍ Australian coal miner New Hope Corp Ltd said on Friday it will lay off up to 75% of its workforce from its corporate headquarters.

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⁍ The layoffs come as the outlook for Australian coal has worsened.

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⁍ China’s halt on coal imports from the country and prices that last month hit decade lows.

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– Australia’s New Hope Corp. will lay off up to 75% of its workforce from its corporate headquarters in Brookwater, Queensland, due to what it calls “uncertainty around approvals” for its New Acland mine, Reuters reports. The layoffs come as the outlook for Australian coal has worsened given China’s halt on coal imports from the country and prices that last month hit decade lows amid a COVID-19 pandemic demand slump and abundant cheaper natural gas alternatives. “We have had to make some extremely difficult decisions, but, in reality, even if we were granted approvals for Stage 3 today, we are in for a tough couple of years as we ramp up again,” CEO Reinhold Schmidt says. New Hope swung to an annual loss last month, hurt by a plunge in coal prices as power demand fell in its key markets due to the pandemic. China’s move to stop accepting some coal from Australia has added to pressure on New Hope to shore up its domestic market amid trade tension between the two countries.