China?s 2013 coal import estimated to grow higher

By Tri Subhki R

China?s total coal import volume in the first three quarters in 2013 was 239 million tons, with a gap of only 50 million tons compared with 289 million tons in 2012. So, based on Chinese analysts, the total import volume of coal in 2013 will go beyond last year.

Seeing the declining coal price trend in domestic market and largely increase of ocean freight before October, analysts thought the import volume might shrink gradually due to the uncompetitiveness on price of imported materials, as quoted by JYD Chinese Coal Market Report recently.

According to Customs Data, China imported 239 million tons of coal in the first three quarters of 2013, an increase of 17.6 percent on the annual basis. Meanwhile, China imported 25.73 million tons of coal in September 2013, an increase of 38.1 percent year-on-year but a decrease of 0.9% compared with previous month.

The big year-on-year increase of coal import volume is mainly contributed by the fast growing import volume of coking coal and the modestly increasing import volume of steam coal.

Editing by Johannes Simbolon