China September numbers of coal imports are down 16% in the year to year comparison, accordingly the year-to-date numbers are down to 29%.

Officers of Shantou Customs were inspecting imported coal Source: http://english.customs.gov.cn/
© Leeyiutung/ Fotolia

China’s coal imports, including lignite, thermal and metallurgical coal, fell 16 % on the year-to-year comparison to 17.77 million tonnes in September in the 15th consecutive year-on-year. Even if the numbers for September show slight monthly increase, as data showed from the General Administration of Customs (GAC) on October 13, there is still a very weak demand for Coal in China. The annual decrease was mainly because buyers preferred domestic coals due to large coal miners’ price cuts and discounts under this year’s sales pressure.

Over January-September, the country imported a total 156.36 million tonnes of coal, down 29.8 % from a year ago, the GAC said. If this trend continues, an average decrease of Chinas total coal imports of 30 % is very likely this year. In this case around 100 million tonnes are available on the world coal market, giving still significant price pressures on the world Coal prices. Here the prices have dropped for the delivery in the ARA area (API 2 Index) from 67,9 to 48,6 USD/tonne, which is an decrease of 28 %.