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China-Australia relations: US coal continues to fill void left by ban on Australian exports, Canberra report says
- Philippines and Colombia – coal exporters that do not traditionally ship to China – have also seen a windfall of orders in recent months
- Australia’s coal, meanwhile, has been redirected to countries such as India, but coronavirus outbreaks could slow shipments
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The United States continued shipping more coal to China in May – supporting an upward trend seen in recent months and filling the gap left by Australian coal banned by Chinese authorities, newly released trade data and reports show.
About 720,000 tonnes of coal made its way from the US to China in May, increasing year on year, but declining from the 1 million tonnes China received from the US in April, according to the latest Chinese trade data.
US coal shipments to China, which gradually began their upward swing from nearly zero in October, climbed to 300,000 tonnes by February.
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Last month marked the sixth straight month with no Australian coal exports to China. Meanwhile, the American supply, now stripped of tariffs as a result of the phase-one trade deal with China, has become increasingly appealing to Chinese importers in need of coal, according to the latest quarterly report on resources and energy released by Australia’s department of industry this week.
“Since the imposition of informal import restrictions on Australia, Chinese steelmakers have sought to shift their supply chains, though coastal mills have proven less successful in reducing import dependency. As a result, import patterns have changed, with China’s imports of US metallurgical [coking] coal reaching a new record in February 2021,” says the report, which takes a pulse on the global energy and resources trade on a quarterly basis.
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