Queensland coal producers have delivered a record level of coal exports in 2015, with 220 million tonnes shipped out.
Queensland Resources Council chief executive Michael Roche said the record numbers, which saw a 2 per cent increase from 216 million tonnes in 2014, have “confounded the naysayers”.
“New record export numbers were achieved at the ports of Gladstone (72.0 mt), Hay Point (44.4 mt) and Abbot Point (27.2 mt) with exports at Dalrymple Bay virtually unchanged at 69.3 mt,” Mr Roche said.
“These latest export numbers also shed a different light on claims by anti-coal activist Tim Buckley that India was turning away from Australian coal.
“In fact, the opposite is the case.
“With the benefit of the destination data produced by Gladstone Ports Corporation, we know that coal exports from Gladstone port to India (which accounts for about two-thirds of Queensland’s total coal exports to India) actually accelerated in the second half of 2015.”
Coal exports from Gladstone port to India in the six months to December 2015 were more than 19 per cent higher than in the same period of 2014 and nearly 24 per cent higher than in the first six months of 2015.
“This evidence of a growing Indian market for Queensland’s lower-emission high-energy coal refutes the anti-coal activists’ claims about the economics of new coal projects such as the proposed Adani and GVK Hancock mines in the Galilee Basin,” Mr Roche said.
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