In July this year, China imported 32.885 million mt of coal, increasing by 13.4 percent year on year, as announced by the Chinese customs authorities. In the January-July period this year, shipments from abroad totaled 187.364 million mt of coal, increasing by 7.0 percent year on year. The increase in July was connected with the high crude steel production volumes in China.
Higher import volumes in the first half of the year have made more market participants worried about filling their quota for the whole of the year earlier than expected. “Demand in China is still there, but we are expecting restrictions at ports in September-October,” a Chinese trader said.
In the January-July period this year, China exported 3.639 million mt of coal, increasing by 30.5 percent year on year.
