Report hope over India’s coal demand

INDIA could be the “bright light” for Australia’s thermal coal export industry, creating at least 4000 direct jobs, according to a new report.

The Coal in India report, due to be released today, says India’s surging demand for energy presents a “golden opportunity” for Australia to increase thermal coal exports to the world’s sixth-largest economy and supercharge the opening of Queensland’s Galilee Basin.

The report, from the Office of the Chief Economist, comes as Resources Minister Matt Canavan prepares to leave for India on Sunday to drum up enthusiasm for Australian coal projects, including those in the Galilee Basin.

Australia exported five million tonnes of thermal coal to India in 2018 but that total could triple when the controversial Adani Carmichael mine in the Galilee Basin starts producing coal.

Two other major projects in the Galilee Basin backed by Indian investors could produce six times as much thermal coal as the Carmichael project if they go ahead.

“If we could lift our thermal coal exports to India to the same market share we currently have with China – to just under 25 per cent of their imports – we could export an additional 37 million tonnes of high energy, low ash thermal coal,” Senator Canavan said.

“That is the equivalent of three or four new Adani Carmichael-sized coal mines.

“If this investment occurred in the Galilee Basin, it would open up a new, sustainablysized coal basin in Queensland.”

About 70 per cent of Indian metallurgical coal imports come from Australia, taking 45.3 million tonnes in 2018.

Queensland Resources Council chief executive Ian Macfarlane said the State Government’s interventions in the approval of the Adani Carmichael mine had confused potential investors.

“What we’re hearing on the ground now is India is now more comfortable than they were with Queensland,” he said. “I guess that level of comfort, to be frank, probably needs to rise a bit more.”

He said there was a huge opportunity to increase thermal coal exports to reduce the reliance on China.

“The tariff and other ship inspection process is slowing down our exports into China and that’s having a price impact back here,” he said. “The more we can diversify the more we can ameliorate that.”