Australia's export sales revenues dropped in August from a year earlier largely because of reduced LNG export receipts to a three-year low. But iron ore and coal receipts rebounded from July, although they were still down on a year earlier. Australia's export receipts of energy and mineral commodities eased to A$17.31bn ($11.87bn) in July from A$20.96bn in August 2019 and above the A$16.34bn in July, according to August trade data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) that used an exchange rate of $0.6856. The fall in LNG export receipts was expected following the release of preliminary export data for August.
Australia's total export receipts from China, its largest trading partner, was relatively flat at A$11.88bn in August from A$11.83bn in July and down from A$13.83bn in August 2019. This was more than 14pc below the record exports of A$13.8bn in June. Around half of the exports to China from Australia are iron ore shipments. Iron ore export receipts rose to their second highest monthly level ever in August to A$9.75bn from A$9.33bn in August 2019 and above the A$9.16bn in July. This was only behind the record of A$10.03bn in June.