DMP releases 2014-15 financial year statistics.
| Date: | Friday, 11 September 2015 |
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Western Australia’s mineral and petroleum industry was valued at $99.5 billion in 2014-15 according to statistics released by the Department of Mines and Petroleum (DMP) today.
Iron ore remained the State’s highest value commodity with $54 billion in sales.
General Manager Policy and Coordination Richard Borozdin said project expansions and strong demand led by China helped iron ore reach record production quantities.
“Western Australia produced 719 million tonnes of iron ore in 2014-15, a 15 per cent increase compared to the previous year, however the low iron ore price resulted in a decrease in the total value of sales,” Mr Borozdin said.
Total production from the petroleum sector was valued at $24 billion, a nine per cent decrease on the previous year.
The declining crude oil price meant that the value of sales decreased despite an increase in production of most petroleum products.
LNG was the most valuable petroleum product for Western Australia in 2014-15 with $13.8 billion in sales.
Mr Borozdin said that the value of the resources industry decreased in 2014-15 after a record year in 2013-14.
The value of the Western Australian resources industry had previously increased by 20 per cent in 2013-14 to reach a record $122 billion.
“The cyclical nature of commodity markets and prices means the value of the industry will always fluctuate,” Mr Borozdin said.
“The industry has been steadily increasing in value over the last two decades and the current value is similar to what was seen between 2010-11 and 2012-13.”
The weakening Australian dollar also helped offset falling commodity prices.
Western Australia has also experienced a sustained period of investment growth in recent years.
Latest investment statistics continue to show Western Australia having a very high value of resources projects under construction or in the committed stage (estimated at $171 billion), and a further $110 billion identified as planned or possible projects.
Mr Borozdin said these investment figures should to be treated carefully as they would decline sharply during the next 18 months as several major and high value projects were completed.
“But what this means is that as construction and expansion of these projects is completed, their contribution to the State’s economy becomes driven by their production capacity, rather than their capital expenditure,” he said.
Further information on the latest statistics release is available on the DMP website.
Record production levels for many resources offset falling commodity prices.
