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A SLOWDOWN in China and shrinkage in the consumption of coal are tearing holes in the fabrics of once-booming mining towns in Queensland’s Bowen Basin.
At the peak of the coal boom in 2011, the Bowen Basin boasted 48 operational coal mines and more than 50 mining projects.
Driven by rocketing demand from Asia, coal and iron-ore insulated the country from the worst of the GFC, and temporarily turned Australia into the world’s largest exporter of coal. Japan is the biggest buyer, with China in second place buying another 23 per cent. As the world’s largest importer and consumer of coal, China and its promise of perpetual economic growth was the linchpin upon which the Australian coal industry pegged its prosperity.
By 2012, oversupply of the commodity, coupled with Chinese efforts to diminish dependence on the most polluting of all fossil fuels saw coal prices start to head south. Last month, thermal coal fell to $73 per tonne (compared to $166 per tonne in 2011), while the commodity price for a tonne of metallurgic coal fell to $135, from $380.
Coal’s free fall has sent shock waves through the Bowen Basin. Half a dozen mines have been closed, a third of those that remain operational are running at losses and more than 1,200 mining jobs were axed last year alone. And new mine closures and job losses loom heavily on the Central Queensland’s blood-red horizon.
At the peak of the coal boom in 2011, the Bowen Basin boasted 48 operational coal mines and more than 50 mining projects.
Driven by rocketing demand from Asia, coal and iron-ore insulated the country from the worst of the GFC, and temporarily turned Australia into the world’s largest exporter of coal. Japan is the biggest buyer, with China in second place buying another 23 per cent. As the world’s largest importer and consumer of coal, China and its promise of perpetual economic growth was the linchpin upon which the Australian coal industry pegged its prosperity.
By 2012, oversupply of the commodity, coupled with Chinese efforts to diminish dependence on the most polluting of all fossil fuels saw coal prices start to head south. Last month, thermal coal fell to $73 per tonne (compared to $166 per tonne in 2011), while the commodity price for a tonne of metallurgic coal fell to $135, from $380.
Coal’s free fall has sent shock waves through the Bowen Basin. Half a dozen mines have been closed, a third of those that remain operational are running at losses and more than 1,200 mining jobs were axed last year alone. And new mine closures and job losses loom heavily on the Central Queensland’s blood-red horizon.
