With the gradual climb of the global coal price and the surge in demand in the Asian market, Australia's coal export revenue is re - innovating and replacing iron ore to become the country's largest source of export revenue.
The Australian newspaper (The Australian) reported on July 2nd local time that the latest statistics from the Australian Ministry of industry, innovation and science forecast that the total Australian coal export will reach 58 billion 100 million Australian yuan (about 285 billion 70 million yuan) in the fiscal year of June 30th, July 1, 2018 -2019, which is also the last ten years of Australian coal. For the first time, carbon exports broke through the record of the highest export volume of 57 billion 700 million Australian dollars.
In the 2017-2018 fiscal year, the export volume of steam coal hit a new high of 23 billion Australian dollars, an increase of 20% over the same period last year. The agency expects that the growth of steam coal will remain stable in the next 12 months and will slow down in the next second years.
Driven by high oil prices, coking coal exports have maintained relatively stable growth. In fiscal year 2018-2019, coking coal exports amounted to 35 billion 400 million Australian dollars, slightly lower than the highest 38 billion Australian dollar in last fiscal year.
"The coal industry has created thousands of jobs, billions of taxes and record exports," Matthew Canavan, the Australian resource minister, said in a speech on Monday.
Canavan said the latest forecast for coal exports would further promote a deal with the Adani Group group, the largest port development and operator in India, to propose a 16 billion 500 million Australian dollar purchase of Carmichael coal in the Carmichael coal mine in Australia, and to drive the development of the Galilee basin (Galilee Basin) in the location of the site.
The Adani group said it would be likely to give up the project if it did not agree to a concession agreement with the state, with the government of the Queensland government using the coal mine project to prevent the development of the Charlie basin from the terms of the mineral rights system.
"Considering the current price, we will not be sensible if we do not open the Galilee basin as soon as possible." Canavan told Australian newspaper that "opening the Galilee basin will bring 16 thousand direct mining jobs and tens of billions of taxes".
According to Australia's June 2018 resource and energy quarterly, the country's total resources and energy exports reached a record $226 billion in the 2017-2018 fiscal year and expected to reach a new high of 238 billion Australian dollars in fiscal year 2018-2019, driven by strong demand for coal, liquefied natural gas and iron ore.
"In the next few years, coal and iron ore are likely to continue to compete for Australia's largest export position, and LNG will also be strong," Canavan said.
Under the Aussie recovery and strong global steel production, the world trade in coking coal will grow by 5.1% to 3.34 billion tons this year, and the Australian sea market will account for 58% by 2020, and India will become the largest coking coal importer in two years.
The price of power coal in Australia has set a new high because of the robust growth of Asian economic growth, the surge of electricity consumption, the increase of seasonal demand after summer, the interruption of the supply of coal mines in South Africa, and the transfer of buyers to Australia.
In June 15th this year, the daily average price of 6000 big card power coal in Newcastle port of Australia was 116.05 US dollars per day, which was a seven year high since February 2012, up 41.15% from the same year, up by about 12.5% compared with the beginning of the year.
The Australian mining association, citing the latest global demand report for Australian steam coal in June, said that demand for Asian thermal coal will grow strongly in the next ten years. The report predicts that most of the demand growth will come mainly from the existing export markets of Australia's high quality coal, including Japan, China, Taiwan and South Korea, as well as emerging markets such as Vietnam, Philippines and Thailand.
Australia became the largest importer of coal in China last year. In 2017, China imported 2.71 billion tons of coal, an increase of 6.06% over the same period last year. Among them, Australia's import volume exceeded 80 million tons, up 13.6%, accounting for 29.5% of China's total coal imports, accounting for 21% of Australia's total coal exports (3.78 billion tons).
In June of this year, China Merchants Port Holdings Limited (hereinafter referred to as the China Merchants port, 00144.HK) completed the stock acquisition of the Australian port Newcastle port (Port of Newcastle) 50% from the parent company Merchants Group.
The port of Newcastle is the largest port in the east coast of Australia, which accounts for about 40% of the coal export trade in Australia, and is also the world's largest coal export port. The port design capacity is 2.11 million tons, and the throughput is 1.67 million tons in 2017, of which coal is 1.59 million tons.
