Australia Q4 Export Prices Rise for First Time in a Year
2025-01-30 00:34
By
Farida Husna
1 min. read
Australia's export prices rose by 3.6% qoq in Q4 of 2024, shifting from a 4.3% fall in Q3 and marking the first rise since Q4 of 2023.
Main contributors to the growth were metalliferous ores and metal scrap (7.0%), led by a recovery in iron ore prices early in the quarter after the announcement of economic stimulus measures; gas, natural and manufactured (5.3%), as higher demand for LNG in North Asia and Europe drove up global LNG spot prices; and gold, non-monetary (9.7%), as the price of gold hit its peak in October, due to escalating demand amid ongoing economic uncertainty.
Continued purchasing of gold by central banks and global monetary easing also sustained high demand for gold.
Offsetting the rise were coal, coke, and briquettes (-3.3%), with sharp metallurgical coal price falls at the beginning of the quarter due to the weak Chinese property sector curtailing steel demand.
Through the year to Q4, export prices fell by 8.6%, the most in 5 quarters, after a 6.8% drop in Q3.