South Korea: Thermal coal imports rise by 3% in May’21

South Korea’s thermal coal imports rose by 2.7% m-o-m to 6.9 mn t in May’21, as per customs data, due to increased power demand during the summer season. Imports from Australia were recorded at 3.2 mn t, followed by Indonesia at 1.13 mn t and Russia at 1.5 mn t. In Jan-May’21, South Korea’s coal imports were at 35.54 mn t, down 4.5% y-o-y.