China's April coal import data by origin was recently released and shows that imports from Indonesia have remained the primary source of imports and Russia the second largest source of imports. Imports from Indonesia totaled 16 million tons, which is up from March by 6 million tons (60%) and up year-on-year by 4.3 million tons (37%).
Imports from Russia totaled 3.9 million tons, which is up from March by 800,000 tons (26%) but down year-on-year by 600,000 tons (-13%). Remaining significant to us is that Russia has remained China's second largest source of coal imports. As we discussed in earlier Weekly China Reports this year, we continue to believe that China's April's coal import tariff cut was done with Russian coal imports in mind. Thermal coal imports from Russia previously had a 6% tariff. Indonesia, China's largest source of coal imports, already had a tariff rate of zero.
Imports from Mongolia totaled 1.4 million tons, which is up from March by 400,000 tons (40%) and up year-on-year by 500,000 tons (56%). Imports from Mongolia have long remained under pressure from the Chinese government due to Mongolian coronavirus cases.
No imports were reported from Australia in April. This is down from March by 300,000 tons. China had previously imported Australian coal for six straight months (but March and February did see only a relatively small amount of volume). Prior to October, the last time China reported any coal imports from Australia was back in November 2020. China never officially reported an end to its ban on Australian coal imports, and it remains to be seen if imports will resume again in the near term.
Also of note is that imports from Canada and the Philippines each exceeded 1 million tons in April. Imports from Canada totaled 1 million tons, which is up from March by 300,000 tons (42%) and up year-on-year by 400,000 tons (67%). Imports from the Philippines totaled 1.1 million tons, which is up from March by 300,000 tons (38%) but down year-on-year by 100,000 tons (-8%). No coal was imported from South Africa, with April marking the third straight month where China did not import coal from South Africa. Also of note is that no coal was imported from Colombia, with April marking the second straight month where China did not import coal from Colombia. In addition, only 100,000 tons was imported from the United States. This is down from March by 300,000 tons (-75%) and down year-on-year by 900,000 tons (-90%).