China-Australia relations: Beijing’s coking coal order another sign of thawing ties
- Before the Lunar New Year, 80,000 tonnes of coking coal was ordered from the Moranbah North mine in Queensland to be shipped to China February/March
- China has not imported Australian coal since late 2020 amid conflict that deepened after Canberra called for an investigation into the origins of coronavirus
Chinese buyers have booked another shipment of coal from Australia in a further sign that Beijing’s unofficial block on imports of the commodity from the resource powerhouse could be lifted amid a thawing of diplomatic tension.
This time, the import order was for coking coal, a key component of Chinese steel manufacturing and harder to replace compared to the thermal coal it also previously imported.
Just before the start of the Lunar New Year holiday, buyers ordered 80,000 tonnes of coking coal from Anglo-American’s Moranbah North mine in Queensland due to be loaded for shipment to China between late February and early March, according to commodity and energy price agency Argus Media.
The identity of the buyer could not be determined as Chinese markets had been closed, but Argus Media said it sold at the cost-and-freight price of US$325 a tonne.
There were also orders for thermal coal earlier this year. Thermal coal is used for electricity generation.
But it is the physical arrival of these orders in China and the volume of trade after the first batch has arrived that will determine if trade relations have indeed thawed, Argus Media says.