In its Study of Long-Term Global Coal Demand, the treasury predicts the long-term prospects for the state's metallurgical coal likely to be more robust than for thermal coal.

"Queensland Treasury's analysis of the International Energy Association's projections highlights that Queensland's future coal demand will continue to be primarily linked to key economies in North-East and South-East Asia," treasury says.

"In particular, the future demand for Queensland's metallurgical coal likely hinges on demand from the world's two largest coal consumers, China and India.

"Queensland's coal industry continues to enjoy key advantages, including its geographic location and the quality of its coal, compared with most of its global competitors."

Queensland produced 317.4 million tonnes of raw coal in 2018-19, resulting in 251.2Mt of saleable coal split 156.2Mt of metallurgical coal and 95Mt of thermal coal.

More recent data indicate that Queensland's saleable coal production in 2019-20 was around 240Mt.

"Queensland is the world's largest seaborne exporter of metallurgical coal (including hard coking, semi-soft coking, and pulverised coal injection coal," treasury states.

"The state's top six destinations for hard coking coal were China, India, Japan, Korea, The Netherlands and Taiwan, which combined accounted for 86% of the total volume of the State's hard coking coal exports in 2019-20."