China’s coking coal imports grew for the fifth consecutive month. In July, China imported 6.12 million tonnes of coking coal, surging 62.2 percent from the same period last year.
Last month, 45.2 percent of China’s coking coal import was supplied by Mongolia, 32.8 percent by Russia, and the rest by Canada, the United States, and Indonesia.
China’s coking coal import, July, by country
In the reporting period, the import value of coking coal reached USD 1.5 billion. Moreover, the average import price was USD 255.9 per tonne, spiking up USD 79 from the same period of the previous year.
The number of trucks carrying metallurgical coal into China has been increasing for the last few months, as COVID-19 movement restrictions eased. Mongolia has emerged as the top coking coal supplier to China in the absence of Australian coal. However, tight pandemic controls on both sides of the China-Mongolia border impeded supplies in 2021. Mongolia’s coal exports to China are expected to rise further in the near term, helping ease tight domestic metallurgical coal supplies in the country, according to analysts.