Crushed coal takes gloss off iron ore boom

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Not that this matters much for the deficit, which is now irrelevant, but it will matter to the Australian dollar. Via the AFR:

Glencore is working on plans to slash output from Australian coal mines in response to weak prices, in a move that will reinforce the Swiss miner’s reputation as the most active manager of supply and demand in global commodity markets.

…The move comes after prices for top-quality thermal coal from NSW have slumped from more than $US120 a tonne to just $US51 a tonne over the past two years, leaving an estimated 30 per cent of local mines in the red.

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About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.