The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE) reported significant production falls in most mineral and energy commodities for the 2003 March quarter, with underground raw coal production slumping 11% from the December quarter to 20.13Mt.

 

Leading the raw coal production table was Queensland with an output of 51.66Mt, up on the previous quarter, whilst production fell in New South Wales to 34.95Mt.

 

Saleable black coal peaked at 15.41Mt for the underground sector, down 2.53Mt from the three months leading to December.

 

Overall Australian export earnings from mineral resources fell by 1.9% in the March quarter compared with the previous quarter, down $260 million to $13.3 billion.

 

High quality coking coal exports stepped up slightly to 16.74Mt, Japan leading the way purchasing 4.46Mt for the period, closely followed by the European Union with 3.92Mt and India with 2.81Mt.

 

Coking Coal exports also rose 1.17Mt to 10.95Mt for the quarter mainly through Japanese imports of 5.92Mt.

 

Steaming coal exports rose marginally to 25.83Mt, with Japan buying the majority at 14.15Mt.

 

Export increases were offset by commodity price declines, high quality coal collapsing 5.86% to $76.64/t for the quarter, coking coal to $55.58/t down 6.11% and steaming coal dropped off to $43.03/t, a decrease of 6.03% on the December quarter.

 

As a result of poor prices values fell for coking coal to $1.8b, plunging $43 million from the previous quarter and down $118 million from the corresponding quarter.