IRON ore will prop up Australia’s resource and energy export earnings despite the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, according to a new estimate put forth by the Australian Department of Industry, Innovation and Science.
The department’s latest Resources and Energy Quarterly (REQ) forecasts commodity export earnings to hit a record $299b in 2019-2020, an increase of $18b from 2018-2019.
The REQ covers a five-year outlook, highlighting long-term structural changes affecting global commodity markets including urbanisation, industrialisation and technological change.
This edition includes information on the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the commodity outlook.
While oil prices have been falling due to diminishing global demands for air travel, gold prices have been increasing as investors look towards safe options, benefiting the growing gold production in Australia.
Federal Resources, Water and Northern Australia minister Keith Pitt said iron ore is expected to be the first commodity to exceed $100b in export earnings in a single year.
“Australia is also on track to become the world’s largest gold producer, expected to overtake China in 2021,” he said.
“The best thing we as a government can do is to remove any red and green tape stifling investment and ensure our policy settings and actions for managing challenges like COVID-19 are right.
“Our exports of coal, gas and uranium are crucial to global energy markets and our success in extracting and exporting lithium, copper, nickel and zinc also make Australia important in supporting new technology, including electric vehicles and batteries.”
