China’s coal import data for January and February by origin has been released and shows that imports from Indonesia have remained the primary source of China’s imports. The ban on Australian imports also clearly remains in place, with February marking the third straight month where no coal imports from Australia entered China. Also quite noteworthy is that coal imports from Mongolia experienced the largest year-on-year increase — but as we have discussed in our recent Weekly China Reports, imports from Mongolia have been coming under sharp pressure during the last several days as China’s government has been putting limitations on the number of Mongolian coal trucks allowed into the country. New daily coronavirus cases in Mongolia have also been setting records during the past several days, and there is no sign that China's restrictions on Mongolian coal trucks will end anytime soon.
China’s coal imports from Indonesia totaled 28.6 million tons in January/February, which has marked a year-on-year decline of 5.2 million tons (-15%). As we have discussed in prior work, China’s total coal imports in January/February fell year-on-year by 40%, but imports in December totaled 39.1 million tons. This was the largest amount of coal that China has ever imported, and it is not troubling that China's total import volume (and also the volume imported from Indonesia and other nations) fell on a year-on-year basis in January/February. Also of note is that Russia exported a total of 5.6 million tons of coal to China in January/February, which has marked a year-on-year decline of 200,000 tons (-3%). In addition, Canada exported a total of 800,000 tons of coal to China in January/February, which has marked a year-on-year decline of 200,000 tons (-3%).
Mongolia and the United States were the only two major exporters to experience year-on-year growth in their coal exports to China in January/February. Again, though, exports from Mongolia are now coming under significant pressure. Mongolia exported a total of 4.5 million tons of coal to China in January/February. While this is up year-on-year by 1.3 million tons (41%), China’s imports from Mongolia will be coming under significant pressure for as long as the Mongolian coal truck limitations are in place. Also up in January/February were exports from the United States. The United States exported a total of 600,000 tons of coal to China in January/February, which has marked a year-on-year increase of 500,000 tons (500%).
