SteelOrbis Shanghai
Under the influence of the current global financial crisis, the coking coal industry in the northern Chinese province of Shanxi has in recent times come under serious pressure. In order to reverse the predicament the industry is facing, the authorities in Shanxi have proposed to China's central government that the export tax on coking coal should be reduced and thereby brought into line with the export tax on other coals.
In August this year China's export tariff on coking coal was hiked to 40 percent, as a result of which exports shrunk, coking coal inventories rose, overall prices decreased, and coking coal enterprises began to experience liquidity problems.