Aus. Harvest Conditions "Shocking" After Huge Rains; Coal Shipments Disrupted, Wettest Sep-Nov Ever

[hatrack]

Flooding and heavy rainfall in Australia damaged wheat crops, disrupted coal production and caused communities to be evacuated as eastern states prepared for further wet weather this week. The rain may cut the quality of more than 40 percent of the country’s wheat crop, according to estimates by National Australia Bank Ltd. Rio Tinto Group, the world’s third-largest mining company, said today coal mines in central Queensland state had partially resumed operation after rains.

Wheat futures in Chicago rallied to the highest level in four months on concern that the weather in Australia, the fourth-largest shipper, may reduce global supply of high-quality milling grain. The rain had wiped as much as A$500 million ($496 million) off the expected A$3.2 billion value of New South Wales winter crops, state Premier Kristina Keneally said today. “The weather we have been getting over the past couple of weeks has been terrible,” Michael Creed, an agribusiness economist at National Australia Bank Ltd. in Melbourne, said by phone. “Harvest conditions are shocking.”

Rainfall of between 25 millimeters (1 inch) and 100 millimeters may extend from eastern South Australia to southern Queensland in the four days ending Dec. 9, the Bureau of Meteorology forecast. Flood warnings are current for rivers in New South Wales, its northern neighboring state Queensland and Victoria to its south.

La Nina

The deluge in Australia, caused by a La Nina event that cools the Pacific Ocean and increases rainfall, helped drive wheat futures 13 percent higher in Chicago last week. The March- delivery contract gained 1.8 percent to $7.93 a bushel at 3:56 p.m. Melbourne time. Australia had its wettest September-to-November spring on record, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. Thirty-four shires in New South Wales have been declared natural-disaster areas since flooding in October, Keneally said.

EDIT

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-06/australia-floods-damage-crops-force-evacuations-coal-shipments-disrupted.html

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. after horrendous drought, now this?

one extreme, followed by the other.

[kestrel91316]

2. They should just buy their wheat from Russia this year - they have plenty.

Oh, wait........