Queensland Spurs U.S. Coal Exports to 15-Year High

The biggest floods in Queensland, Australia, in half a century are turning into a windfall for U.S. coal mining companies anticipating record profits and the highest exports in 15 years.

Shipments from the U.S. are poised to rise 8.8 percent this year to about 86.5 million tons, the most since 1996, the Energy Department in Washington said Feb. 8. Demand for American coal is increasing after floods devastated an area of Australia twice the size of Texas. Queensland’s combined output of steelmaking and thermal coal may be reduced by 23 million metric tons, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a Jan. 25 report. That’s about 13 percent of the state’s exports in the year ended in June.