The 16% drop was accompanied by a rather sombre result for coking coal, down $588 million to $7.450 billion (7% fall).
Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics’ (ABARE) Australian Mineral Statistics report released this week showed export earnings by the Australian mineral and energy sector fell by two percent to $54.9 billion in 2002-03.
The slightly weaker performance in 2002-03 compared with 2001-02 reflected significantly lower export earnings, particularly for coal.
ABARE executive director Brian Fisher said the steep earnings decline by steaming coal was mainly a result of a 23% fall in the average export price offsetting higher export volumes.
