In December last year, China’s raw coal output amounted to 330 million mt, up 2.4 percent on year-on-year basis, 2.1 percentage points slower than the growth recorded in November, as announced by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). At the same time, China imported 2.77 million mt of coal in December last year, down 72.9 percent year on year, falling to the lowest level in the past ten years, shifting from a year-on-year rise of 8.5 percent in November last year, due to the halt in issuance of customs clearances for imported coal at Chinese ports in the last month of 2019.
In 2019, China’s raw coal output amounted to 3.75 billion mt, increasing by 4.2 percent compared to 2018, 0.3 percentage points lower than the year-on-year increase rate recorded in the first 11 months of 2019. In the same year, China imported 300 million mt of coal, up 6.3 percent year on year.