If you believe many of the pundits out there, the sunshine state is doing it really tough at the moment.
Things are so bad these days that the average Queensland male is only consuming three cartons of XXXX beer instead of four.
Hard times indeed.
The pubs in Brisbane and a few outback towns may have been plying less alcohol lately but the figures never lie when it comes to the strength of the state’s coal industry.
December was a bumper month for coal exports from Queensland. Exports for that month reached 20.7 million tonnes which is the highest month on record.
Total coal exports from Queensland in 2016 totaled 221Mt, eclipsing last year’s record by 1Mt.
The export figures were achieved with strong numbers across all of Queensland’s ports including Gladstone, Abbot Point, Dalrymple Bay – with Hay Point leading the way with a 10% annual increase in volumes to 49Mt.
Significant increases in the value of hard-coking coal also helped drive a $1.6 billion increase in Queensland’s overseas merchandise exports over the year to November quarter 2016.
Acting Treasurer Bill Byrne said this represented a 12.4% nominal value increase in the period.
Byrne said higher coal contract prices were expected to support further growth in export values in coming months.
Queensland Resources Council CEO Ian Macfarlane said the resources sector continued to underpin the Queensland economy.
“Queensland is in a prime position with its high-quality thermal and coking coal to continue to be one of the main players in global coal exports and the sector contributed more than a $1 billion windfall to the state’s coffers this financial year,” Macfarlane said.
“As we know from our current economic data, Queensland’s coal industry delivered a $32.7 billion economic contribution in 2015-16 and supported more than 183,000 employees across the state. On top of this, the gas industry contributed $12.8 billion and more than 65,000 employees.”
Queensland has a world-class coal industry it can be proud of and that it can bank its future prosperity on but all we hear is negative talk from some Green activists about how coal is a dying industry.
Green activists continue to claim the world is turning away from coal and fossil fuels. In fact, the opposite is the case with Queensland coal and LNG exported to more than 27 countries in Europe, South America, Asia and the Middle East.
Hogsback still thinks there is plenty to celebrate in this new year, even if you have listen harder to hear the good news over all the noise made by the naysayers.
It’s times like these Hogsback really enjoys being a contrarian.
