Coal outlook 'still strong'Despite the current slump, the...

Coal outlook 'still strong'

Despite the current slump, the forecast is strong.

The official forecaster, the Bureau of Resource Energy Economics (BREE), says Australian exports will be worth $225 billion over five years for both coking coal and thermal coal.

Australia's biggest coal miners are Glencore, BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Anglo American and Peabody.

The BREE says Australia exported 540 million tonnes of coal in 2013, up from 501 million tonnes in 2012.

There have been some very large proposed mines recently approved in the Galilee Basin in Central Queensland.

The Queensland Government approved a $16 billion mine at Clermont in Central Queensland, which will be Australia's largest coal mine.

Local landholders are hotly opposed, because the rail line to take the coal to port will cut through cattle properties.

The Carmichael mine has yet to get Federal Government approval.

Mining analyst Andrew Harrington, of Indexys, says the low price may be unprofitable for the miners, but the coal is finding buyers, and there's been investment in infrastructure to get the coal to port..

"There's a lot of material leaving Australia," he said.

"The reason prices spiked a few years ago was because there was a lot of demand for coking coal during China's enormous steel construction boom, but there wasn't enough rail and port capacity.

"Now after billions of dollars investment, Australia has new rail, ports and new mines and the eastern states have 500 million tonnes of port capacity, and it's not all being utilised."

Mr Harrington says this is just a restructure.

"There's no one ever going to tell you you don't need steel in the world.

"One way is to get old steel and melt it down, and you use electricity to do that.

"But if you need to make new steel you need coking coal, so iron ore and coking coal make steel and there's no other viable way to do that."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-16/coal-outlook/5462226