Australia will usurp Indonesia to reclaim its title as the world’s biggest coal exporter by 2017, according to government forecasts. In the meantime though, the industry is expected to see tough times as it adjusts to China’s slowdown and a supply overhang from the boom, along with environmental pressures, with India emerging as the new source of demand.
Highlighting sluggish prices, on Friday, Japan’s Tohoku Electric Power reportedly agreed to an annual thermal coal import deal with Rio Tinto at prices 17 percent below a year ago, according to Japan’s Nikkei newspaper. The annual price was settled in the “upper $67 range” per ton for coal from Australia for the Japanese fiscal year beginning April 1, below last year’s price of $81.80 and nearly half the peak price of $130 reached in fiscal 2011.
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