How much coal does Australia export?

References

Data extracted 15 September 2026. Reviewed 2026-09-15 by Aard Data Team. Each numbered entry is the publication that documents the figures; the calls beneath it are the ones the retrieval actually made, and each figure is numbered under its publication — 1.1, 1.2 — and links to the narrowest call that returns it.

1. [1]Australian Bureau of Statistics, International Trade in Goods, July 2026
   Released 2026-09-03
   Vintage: Monthly, next release 1 October 2026. Original, seasonally adjusted and trend. Revised as customs data is amended; the most recent months revise most.
   • API Calls: · extracted 17 September 2026
     ABS:MERCH_EXP(1.0.0)https://data.api.abs.gov.au/rest/data/ABS,MERCH_EXP,1.0.0/32+321+322+325+343+33+28+TOT.TOT.TOT.M?startPeriod=1988-07&format=csvfilewithlabels

     • 1.167.6 $bnderived here · 2025-26 · Coal, coke and briquettes32.TOT.TOT.M· the twelve months of 2025-26 summed from 32.TOT.TOT.M; the ABS publishes this flow quarterly and monthly in this dataflow, not by financial year
     • 1.2127.4 $bnderived here · 2022-23 · Coal, coke and briquettes32.TOT.TOT.M· the twelve months of 2022-23 summed from 32.TOT.TOT.M; the ABS publishes this flow quarterly and monthly in this dataflow, not by financial year
     • 1.38 $bnderived here · 1996-97 · Coal, coke and briquettes32.TOT.TOT.M· the twelve months of 1996-97 summed from 32.TOT.TOT.M; the ABS publishes this flow quarterly and monthly in this dataflow, not by financial year
     • 1.455.4 $bnderived here · 2025-26 · Natural gas, whether or not liquefied343.TOT.TOT.M· the twelve months of 2025-26 summed from 343.TOT.TOT.M; the ABS publishes this flow quarterly and monthly in this dataflow, not by financial year
     • 1.592.2 $bnderived here · 2022-23 · Natural gas, whether or not liquefied343.TOT.TOT.M· the twelve months of 2022-23 summed from 343.TOT.TOT.M; the ABS publishes this flow quarterly and monthly in this dataflow, not by financial year
     • 1.647.5 $bnderived here · 2019-20 · Natural gas, whether or not liquefied343.TOT.TOT.M· the twelve months of 2019-20 summed from 343.TOT.TOT.M; the ABS publishes this flow quarterly and monthly in this dataflow, not by financial year
     • 1.71.5 $bnderived here · 1996-97 · Natural gas, whether or not liquefied343.TOT.TOT.M· the twelve months of 1996-97 summed from 343.TOT.TOT.M; the ABS publishes this flow quarterly and monthly in this dataflow, not by financial year
     • 1.8158.8 $bnderived here · 2025-26 · Metalliferous ores and metal scrap28.TOT.TOT.M· the twelve months of 2025-26 summed from 28.TOT.TOT.M; the ABS publishes this flow quarterly and monthly in this dataflow, not by financial year
     • 1.912.7 %derived here · 2025-26 · Coal share of merchandise exports· the commodity's value over the TOT line in this response
     • 1.1021.6 %derived here · 2022-23 · Coal share of merchandise exports· the commodity's value over the TOT line in this response
     • 1.1110.4 %derived here · 2025-26 · Gas share of merchandise exports· the commodity's value over the TOT line in this response
     • 1.1210.1 %derived here · 1996-97 · Coal share of merchandise exports· the commodity's value over the TOT line in this response
     • 1.131.9 %derived here · 1996-97 · Gas share of merchandise exports· the commodity's value over the TOT line in this response
     • 1.1449.7 $bnderived here · 2018-19 · Natural gas, whether or not liquefied343.TOT.TOT.M· the twelve months of 2018-19 summed from 343.TOT.TOT.M; the ABS publishes this flow quarterly and monthly in this dataflow, not by financial year

     One monthly call covering the commodities and the TOT total alike, summed to financial years in original terms — months are not seasonally adjusted, and the ABS revises them as customs documentation is amended. The share series therefore needs no second call: numerator and denominator are in this response. Division 32 is coal, coke and briquettes and 343 is natural gas; the three-digit groups double-count against their division, which is why 32 rather than 321 is the coal figure. MERCH_EXP observations carry UNIT_MULT=3, thousands of dollars, where the companion ITGS dataflow carries UNIT_MULT=6. Mixing the two is a thousand-fold error and nothing in the data warns you. CORRECTION RECORD, 2026-09-17. The superseded record gave natural gas exports of $49.7bn for 2019-20. Re-running this record's own query against the ABS Data API and summing 343.TOT.TOT.M from monthly to financial years gives 2018-19 = $49.73bn and 2019-20 = $47.52bn, and the page's own chart plots it that way — the record was a year out and the hover card showed the reader the wrong year. Found by an independent review of the gas page and verified against the API before correcting.

   • API Calls: · extracted 15 September 2026
     ABS:MERCH_EXP(1.0.0)https://data.api.abs.gov.au/rest/data/ABS,MERCH_EXP,1.0.0/32..TOT.M?startPeriod=2015-07&format=csvfilewithlabels

     • 1.1520.5 $bnderived here · 2025-26 · Japan32.JAP.TOT.M· the twelve months of 2025-26 summed from 32.JPN.TOT.M; the ABS publishes this flow quarterly and monthly in this dataflow, not by financial year
     • 1.1619.3 $bnderived here · 2018-19 · Japan32.JAP.TOT.M· the twelve months of 2018-19 summed from 32.JPN.TOT.M; the ABS publishes this flow quarterly and monthly in this dataflow, not by financial year
     • 1.1714.1 $bnderived here · 2018-19 · China32.CHIN.TOT.M· the twelve months of 2018-19 summed from 32.CHN.TOT.M; the ABS publishes this flow quarterly and monthly in this dataflow, not by financial year
     • 1.184 $bnderived here · 2020-21 · China32.CHIN.TOT.M· the twelve months of 2020-21 summed from 32.CHN.TOT.M; the ABS publishes this flow quarterly and monthly in this dataflow, not by financial year
     • 1.1910.2 $bnderived here · 2025-26 · China32.CHIN.TOT.M· the twelve months of 2025-26 summed from 32.CHN.TOT.M; the ABS publishes this flow quarterly and monthly in this dataflow, not by financial year
     • 1.201.2 $bnderived here · 2025-26 · Malaysia32.MLAY.TOT.M· the twelve months of 2025-26 summed from 32.MYS.TOT.M; the ABS publishes this flow quarterly and monthly in this dataflow, not by financial year

     Corrected copy of abs-itgs-5368-2026-07-coal-exports-by-destination, whose observation keys named the destination with ISO3 codes (JPN, CHN, MYS). ABS:MERCH_EXP uses its own COUNTRY_DEST codelist — JAP, CHIN, MLAY — and the ISO3 keys resolve to nothing: the constructed call 404s. The recorded VALUES are unaffected and reproduce exactly; only the series identifier printed beside them was wrong. Read back from the recorded call's own response on 2026-09-17. A correction is a new record, never an edit: abs-itgs-5368-2026-07-coal-exports-by-destination stays as it was. Commodity 32 against every destination country, which is what the empty COUNTRY_DEST position returns. Destination is the country the goods were consigned to, not necessarily where they were burned. Corrected 2026-09-16: an earlier note here called India the only large market larger on both comparisons. Against the two years the page charts, India is SMALLER — $11.6bn in 2018-19 against $10.4bn in 2025-26. The nine destinations charted sum to $62.2bn of the $67.6bn 2025-26 total; the residual $5.4bn is spread across destinations not shown and is disclosed on the chart. The selection starts at 2015-07, so it cannot support any claim about which country has bought the most 'for decades'. MERCH_EXP observations carry UNIT_MULT=3, thousands of dollars, where the companion ITGS dataflow carries UNIT_MULT=6. Mixing the two is a thousand-fold error and nothing in the data warns you.

   Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, International Trade in Goods, July 2026. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
2. [2]Australian Bureau of Statistics, International Trade Price Indexes, Australia, June 2026
   Released 2026-07-30
   Vintage: Quarterly. Export and import price indexes in Australian dollars, so they move with the exchange rate as well as with world prices.
   • API Calls: · extracted 15 September 2026
     ABS:ITPI_EXP(1.0.0)https://data.api.abs.gov.au/rest/data/ABS,ITPI_EXP,1.0.0/1.8093751+8093750.Q?startPeriod=2015-Q1&format=csvfilewithlabels

     • 2.1297.5 index · 2022-Q2 · Coal, coke and briquettes export price index1.8093751.Q
     • 2.2138.3 index · 2026-Q2 · Coal, coke and briquettes export price index1.8093751.Q

     MEASURE 1 is the index number. The ABS index reference period is 2011-12 = 100.0, stated in the International Trade Price Indexes methodology (https://www.abs.gov.au/methodologies/international-trade-price-indexes-australia-methodology/jun-2026: "The index reference period for each series continues to be 2011-12 = 100.0"). Corrected 2026-09-16: this record and the page previously said the ABS publishes NO reference base, on the strength of an empty BASE_PERIOD in the Data API response. The empty BASE_PERIOD is real and worth knowing; the conclusion drawn from it was wrong. 8093751 is SITC division 32, coal, coke and briquettes; 8093750 is division 34, gas, natural and manufactured — a broader class than the 343 group the export VALUE series uses, which is why the price and value series are shown side by side and never divided into one another.

   • API Calls: · extracted 15 September 2026
     ABS:ITPI_EXP(1.0.0)https://data.api.abs.gov.au/rest/data/ABS,ITPI_EXP,1.0.0/3.8093751+8093750.Q?startPeriod=2015-Q1&format=csvfilewithlabels

     • 2.3271 % · 2022-Q2 · Coal, coke and briquettes, change on the same quarter a year earlier3.8093751.Q
     • 2.4-38.7 % · 2023-Q3 · Coal, coke and briquettes, change on the same quarter a year earlier3.8093751.Q
     • 2.513.3 % · 2026-Q2 · Coal, coke and briquettes, change on the same quarter a year earlier3.8093751.Q
     • 2.6-10.1 % · 2015-Q1 · Coal, coke and briquettes, change on the same quarter a year earlier3.8093751.Q
     • 2.7-14.7 % · 2026-Q2 · Gas, natural and manufactured, change on the same quarter a year earlier3.8093750.Q
     • 2.82.9 % · 2015-Q1 · Gas, natural and manufactured, change on the same quarter a year earlier3.8093750.Q

     Corrected copy of abs-itpi-6457-2026-06-export-price-index-annual-change, which paired the ~39 per cent fall with the December quarter of 2023. The ABS publishes -38.7 per cent for 2023-Q3 and -25.8 per cent for 2023-Q4, and the chart on this page always plotted both correctly — only the transcribed observation and the sentence citing it were wrong. Found on 2026-09-17 by fetching the per-figure link and checking that the call returns the stated value in the stated period. A correction is a new record, never an edit: abs-itpi-6457-2026-06-export-price-index-annual-change stays as it was. MEASURE 3 is the percentage change from the corresponding quarter of the previous year, which is what the page charts — it needs no reference base. The index itself has one — 2011-12 = 100.0 per the ABS methodology — even though the Data API returns an empty BASE_PERIOD. Corrected 2026-09-16. 8093751 is SITC division 32, coal, coke and briquettes; 8093750 is division 34, gas, natural and manufactured — a broader class than the 343 group the export VALUE series uses, which is why the price and value series are shown side by side and never divided into one another.

   Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, International Trade Price Indexes, Australia, June 2026. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.

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