Coal exports from US reach 20-yr high on Australia floods

LONDON, May 23 (Bloomberg): US coal exports rose to a 20-year high after floods in Australia disrupted supply of the variety used to make steel, said Simpson, Spence & Young Ltd, the world's second-largest shipbroker. Shipments climbed to an annual rate of 96 million tonnes in the first quarter, Derek Langston, a London-based director at the shipbroker's research and consultancy unit, said by phone Monday. That's the most since the 99.3 million tonnes reached in 1991, he said. Queensland Resources Council, representing miners in the Australian state, said in January 85 per cent of mines were "impaired by excess water."