Australia's coal miners feel the heat as China investment cools - FT.com | Coal producers are shipping more than ever at lower prices because of the AUD devaluation and the take-or-pay contracts they have with rail and port operators. The spot price of thermal coal, used for power generation, has fallen about 30 per cent over the past couple of years to under $80 a tonne, while contract prices for coking coal, a key steelmaking ingredient, have dropped 50 per cent to $145 a tonne. The impact of falling prices is stark. Data from the Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics project Australia to have shipped 330m tonnes of coal in the year to June 2013. However, it will receive A$17bn less in revenues than it did in 2011 when it sold 300m tonnes of coal, and almost A$17bn, or 30 per cent, less than in 2009 when it exported 260m tonnes. . . .Last month Peabody Energy, the world's largest private coal company, revealed that the gross margin per tonne from its 11 Australian mines across New South Wales and Queensland had fallen from $36.25 a year earlier to $13.05 in the three months to June. . . .The crisis in the coal industry has become the subject of fierce debate in Australia. Some, such as leading Australian economist and China expert Ross Garnaut, put the blame on the big mining groups, for over-investing while prices were rising and ignoring the potential for weakening demand, particularly from China.