Despite the Chinese government trying to curb imports, coal users in China sought less expensive coal from foreign markets, resulting in imports of coal from Mongolia and Russia rising in Jun’17.
The recent data released by the General Administration of Customs of China shows that coal imports from Mongolia rose in China in Jun’17 by 58.9% to 3.71 MnT as compared with the same month of the preceding year. During the month, the imports in that country from Russia also were up by 41.7% to 2.57 MnT on year-on-year basis. Notably, coal imports in China from Australia, the largest exporter to that country, rose by 6.8% to 6.35 MnT from the imports during the corresponding month of the preceding fiscal.
As a consequence of the coal import ban from North Korea in China, Anthracite Coal imports from Russia increased by more than three-folds in Jun’17 to 0.73 MnT in comparison with the imports in Jun’16.
In contrast, coal imports in China from Indonesia in Jun’17 were lower by 19.4% to 2.33 MnT over that in the same month of the previous year.
In China, demand for coal rose during the month as electricity consumption was higher by the households and offices to keep the air conditioners in the running mode due to the prolonged heat wave.
In May’17, the Chinese government had asked the coal consumers to lower the imports by 5-10% this year in an effort to reduce low quality coal imports.
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