Mozambique Mining: Coal now leads exports

The value of Mozambican coal exports rose 200 percent between the first quarter of 2016 and the same period in 2017, with the product accounting for a full one-third of the value of exports, the Bank of Mozambique has announced.

The figures appear in the monthly statistical bulletin whose distribution the central bank resumed from yesterday.

Exports rose from US$670 million in the first quarter of 2016 to US$977 million in the first quarter of this year (provisional data).

Coal exported in the period, which accounted for 33.4% of all exports, generated revenues of US$326.1 million, an increase of 200.5% over the first quarter of 2016.

Several analysts had recently told Lusa that coal would become Mozambique’s most important export because of the rise in price and demand and the increase in Vale’s production capacity.

The value of aluminium exports also rose from US$192 million to US$249 million in the period in question, but the product slipped into second place – with a quarter (25 percent) of export value.

Coal and aluminium accounted for 59 percent of the value of Mozambique’s exports in the first quarter of this year.

According to the Bank of Mozambique bulletin, the country’s net international reserves (foreign currency deposits of central banks and monetary authorities) in April totalled US$2.2 billion, following a rising trend since February.

This figure covers about four months of imports, according to one of the charts in the bulletin.

To access the Banco de Moçambique bulletin, you may go here.(Source: Lusa)