Sxcoal Issue #4 | China's Nov 2022 coal imports review

This is a review over China's coal imports in Nov 2022 -- by coal types and origins.

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China imported 32.31 million tonnes of coal in Nov, the highest since Dec 2021 and 49.3% above the average of the same month in the past four years. The volume climbed 10.71% from a month ago, but was down 7.81% year on year.

We consider the higher Nov intakes were primarily attributed to:

• stronger utility restocking in anticipation of colder winter;

• favorable price edge of overseas coal over domestic coal; and

• clearance of carry-over tonnages arrived in late Oct.

However, China is nearly impossible to import as much coal in 2022 as in the preceding year, with the Jan-Nov intakes falling 10.1% year on year. The whole-year intakes are also less likely to even exceed 300 million tonnes, considering relatively sufficient stocks at power plants. The recent surge of COVID spread would also be a major factor to affect actual shipments in Dec.

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Coking coal imports were 5.73 million tonnes, falling 26% year on year and 7.66% from the preceding month. Around 43.0% of the imports was imported from Mongolia, while 36.5% from Russia.

Thermal coal (other bituminous coal and other coal) came in at 11.53 million tonnes in Nov, falling 21.92% from a year ago yet up 14.68% from October. Indonesia contributed 52.4% of the volume, followed by Russia at 35.8%.

Lignite imports reached 14.29 million tonnes in Nov, a year-on-year rise of 25.05% and a month-on-moth increase of 17.09%. Among them, 96.2% came from Indonesia and 2.6% from the Philippines.

Anthracite stood at 761,000 tonnes in Nov, down 31.97% year on year and up 6.3% from October. About 96.7% of the shipments were from Russia.

Check this free article for more DETAILS

and also for an INFOGRAPHIC.

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