The Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics estimated that the value of Australia's mining and energy exports in 2013 would decrease by $16 billion even if the volume is bigger and currency is easing.

The culprit is weaker commodity prices, primarily that of iron ore and coking coal. The bureau predicted export value of iron ore would go down by $5.4 billion while coking coal by $9 billion.

Among the 15 commodities covered by the bureau's survey only five have increasing prices, namely, liquefied natural gas (LNG), manganese ore, crude oil, alumina and liquefied petroleum gas.

The bureau predicts there will be a 28 per cent jump in export value of LNG by $3.3 billion compared to 2012 levels. The four other commodities would bring in an additional $800 million in export values.

The remaining 10 commodities, which are suffering from slump in prices, would have export values of $176.5 billion in 2013, which would be $15.9 billion lower compared to 2012.

However, the bureau is optimistic the 10 commodities will have a strong rebound in 2014.

Overall, the bureau estimated total energy and resource exports to increase by 11 per cent to $182 billion, based on an assumption of the Australian dollar's depreciation.

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