According to preliminary data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in February 2021, Australia’s bulk commodity exports increased by 17.7% year-on-year, a decrease from the previous month. However, in terms of average daily exports, February was higher than January. In February, China accounted for 35.3% of Australia’s total commodity exports at 11.35 billion Australian dollars, which was lower than the monthly average of 12.09 billion Australian dollars (60.388 billion yuan) in 2020.
Australia’s bulk commodity exports mainly come from metal ores. Data show that in February, Australia’s total exports of metal ore, including iron ore, coal, and liquefied natural gas, totaled 21.49 billion Australian dollars, which was lower than January’s 21.88 billion Australian dollars but higher than the 18.26 billion Australian dollars in the same period last year.
Among them, iron ore exports reached 13.48 billion Australian dollars, a year-on-year increase of 60%. However, due to the decline in the amount of iron ore exported to China, the value of Australian iron ore exports fell 5.8% month-on-month in the month, of which exports to China fell 12% month-on-month to A$8.53 billion. That month, Australia’s iron ore exports to China were estimated at 47.91 million tons, a decrease of 5.2 million tons from the previous month.
In February, coal exports including coking coal and thermal coal were 3.33 billion Australian dollars, the highest since June 2020 (3.63 billion Australian dollars), but they were still down 18.6% year-on-year.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, a 25% increase in hard coking coal prices offset a 12% drop in exports. In addition, the export volume of thermal coal and semi-soft coking coal recorded a small increase of less than 6%. Australia’s exports of semi-soft coking coal in February were estimated to be 5.13 million tons, and steam coal exports were estimated to be 16.71 million tons.