New Hope Corporation says it expects coal prices to remain low, as it reports its first half net profit has slumped 67 per cent to $22.7 million.

The weaker result was blamed on lower thermal coal export prices, a relatively high Australian dollar, the scheduled closure of one of its mines and pressure from offsite transportation costs.

The company declared an unchanged 6.0 cent per share interim dividend, fully franked.

New Hope produced 2.7 million tonnes of coal during the six months to January 31.

The current challenging market conditions for Australian coal producers were expected to continue and negatively impact revenue and margins in the second half of the financial year, the company said.

However, the company has $1.1 billion in cash and cash equivalents.

That gave it the financial strength to successfully withstand prevailing market conditions and pursue possible attractive acquisition opportunities in coal, oil and gas, it said.

“While demand for thermal coal remains firm, and in the long term high-quality Australian export coals will continue to expand their export volumes into Asia, oversupply is likely to limit any significant improvement to spot thermal coal prices over the immediate term,” chief executive Shane Stephan said in a statement on Tuesday.