Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Australia, the world’s largest shipper of coal, iron ore and wool, raised its forecast for export earnings 3.2 percent this fiscal year on expectations of increased sales volumes of iron ore and coking coal.
Exports may be A$163 billion ($149 billion) in the year ending June 30, 2010, the Canberra-based Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics said today in an e-mailed statement. That compares with its September estimate of A$158 billion and the A$197 billion shipped the previous year.
Australia’s commodity earnings, forecast at the second- highest on record, will be lower than a year earlier, mainly due to a decline in contract prices for bulk commodities and gains in the local currency. The nation’s mine production is forecast to rise by 7 percent, the bureau said.
“The combined effect of lower bulk commodity contract prices, including for coal and iron ore, and an assumed stronger Australian dollar is expected to more than offset the positive effect on earnings of forecast higher export volumes in 2009- 2010,” the bureau’s deputy executive director Terry Sheales said in the statement.
The bureau forecast iron ore and pellets volumes would gain 20 percent, while metallurgical coal shipments may rise 21 percent. That compares with its September forecast for an 18 percent increase in volume of iron ore and pellet shipments and a 4 percent rise in metallurgical coal shipments.
The bureau’s initial forecast in March for sales this fiscal year was A$162 billion.
To contact the reporter on this story: Madelene Pearson in Melbourne on mpearson1@bloomberg.net
