China’s coking coal imports drop over 7% y-o-y in H1CY’25 – GACC

• Total coking coal imports in H1 reach nearly 53 mnt
• Mongolian, American exports decline, Australian shipments rise

MYSTEEL: China’s coking coal imports totalled 52.82 million tonnes in the first half of 2025, down by a marked 7.4% compared with the same period last year, according to latest data from the General Administration of Customs (GACC).

The decline partly reflects Beijing’s strategy to control coal imports since early this year, aimed at easing severe oversupply in the domestic market, Mysteel learned.

By country, coking coal deliveries from Mongolia – China’s largest coking coal supplier –continued cooling from a peak in 2023. Imports from the country dropped by a hefty 16% on year to register 24.75 million tonnes during January-June, the GACC data show. The figure accounted for 46.9% of China’s import mix of the commodity, down from 51.8% in H1 2024, Mysteel Global calculates.

The second-largest supplier Russia shipped 14.81 million tonnes of coking coal to China in H1, largely flat from the year-ago level and taking 28% of China’s total imports.

Canada ranked third, with its coking coal shipments to China notching 5.37 million tonnes in the past six months, climbing by a significant 20.6% on a yearly basis. Australia followed with deliveries also up 26.8% on year to 3.8 million tonnes.

Coking coal from the United States was still absent in the Chinese market as of June, with no shipments for the second straight month. This brought its share in China’s coking coal import mix in H1 down to 5.5%, compared to 6% a year earlier.

China imported 2.91 million tonnes of coking coal from the U.S. in H1, lower by 14.8% on year, according to the GACC data. Apart from higher costs incurred by an additional 15% tariff imposed by Chinese customs on U.S. coal, the increasing uncertainties over China-U.S. trade relations also contributed to the stagnant coal trading, market insiders noted.

For June alone, China’s intakes of coking coal from global suppliers rebounded from a 22-month low of 7.39 million tonnes recorded in May, higher by a substantial 23% to reach 9.11 million tonnes. On a yearly basis, however, the volume was still lower by 8%, the GACC statistics show.

Note: This article has been written in accordance with a content exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and BigMint.