First-half fiscal year net profit at Australia's largest coal hauler, QR National (QRN), came to 278 million Australian dollars ( 282.5 million U.S. dollars), compared with a 132 million Australian dollars (134.1 million U.S. dollars) loss a year ago, QRN said Monday.

QRN also said revenues in the six months to the end of December of 2010 rose 18 percent to 1.75 billion Australian dollars (1.78 billion U.S. dollars).

However, torrential rainfall and consequent flooding in Queensland could severely erode profit over the second half of the fiscal year, QRN said. The adverse natural disaster would likely cut one in every eight metric tons out of ORN's annual haulage volumes.

"Record rainfall across the central Queensland coal systems in the second quarter significantly affected coal volumes and impacted the half year," the company's chief executive Lance Hockridge said in a statement. "{Our focus has been on swift action and working closely with customers to maximize railings of available coal."

The company predicted that the rainfall could cut the statutory earnings before interest and tax down to a range of 280 million Australian dollars (284.5 million U.S. dollars) to 310 million Australian dollars (315 million U.S. dollars), in the full year to the end of June, barely more than the net profit booked in the first half.

QR National hauls about 200 million metric tons of coal a year - equivalent to around one-fifth of the global coal trade - from mines in Queensland and NSW to power stations and coal ports on Australia's east cost.

Among its largest customers, there are BHP Billiton, Xstrata, Rio Tinto, Anglo American and Peabody Energy.