A drop in the value of energy imports enabled Australia to offset falls in the prices and volumes of key exports like iron, ore, coal and LNG in the month of November.
Australia’s seasonally adjusted terms, Australia’s trade edged up to $13.201 billion in November to set up what looks like being another $100 billion plus year for the country’s trade account.
Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed the surplus rose $458 million from October’s $12.743 billion.
Exports fell $225 million to $59.348 billion thanks to the weaker prices for key minerals and energy commodities.
Imports, though, dropped 1.5% to $46.147 billion as the price of oil and petrol dropped as global energy prices slid. That was the lowest import bill in five months.
The cumulative trade surplus for the three months to November topped $38 billion, up from $34.16 billion in the previous three months (which was boosted by the record $16.84 billion surplus in June) and the $29.6 billion surplus for the three months to November, 2021.
The ABS said that while volumes of exports of iron ore – lump and fines – rose, along with shipments of coking coal, exports of thermal coal and LNG fell.
But the prices of these major commodities all slid in November – coking coal prices dropped 20% and iron ore fines (shipped to China) were down 5%. LNG prices though were off 16%.
The ABS said the value of exports of key minerals and energy fell nearly $4 billion in the month.
The value of iron ore lump and fines was down a total of $487 million, hard and soft coking coal (down a total of $826 million), thermal coal (down $800 million) and LNG (down more than $1.96 billion). the total was just on $3.9 billion, a big fall.
On the imports side, the ABS said inbound shipments of capital goods (down $817 million), general merchandise (down $943 million) and consumption goods (down $243 million) all dipped in November.
The value of rural goods slipped to just over $6.97 billion in November from just over $7 billion and a record in October.
The impact of inflation can be seen on both sides of the trade account. In the year to November, imports of goods and services jumped more than a third, or around $11.7 billion thanks to higher prices of imports of fuels such as oils and petrol (even if those prices are lower than they were midyear).
The prices of imported cars and other vehicles were also higher, while the cost impact of the surge in offshore travel by hundreds of thousands of Australians (and sharply higher air fares) was also apparent.
The value of exports was up by around a third as well, or more than $15 billion, thanks also to higher prices for a string of key exports in minerals and rural products (wheat especially) and the return of tourists (such as backpackers) and migrants after the border re-opened.
