China’s coking coal
imports from Russia surged to a record in April, as buyers took advantage of a
large discount against other supplies.
The
world’s biggest coal consumer brought in 1.71 million tonnes of the
metallurgical coal from Russia last month, more than double the 761,287 tonnes
in the same period in 2021, data from the General Administration of Customs
showed on Friday.
As many
buyers have stopped buying from Russia ahead of a European Union embargo due to
be implemented in August, Russian cargoes are priced at a steep discount.
Reuters
reported earlier this month that some Chinese traders have sought ways to
settle payments with Russia even after Western countries blocked Russian banks’
access to the SWIFT international payment system.
“Chinese
and Indian traders are snapping up Russian cargoes as Western countries scale
back, even though the embargo has not officially taken effect yet,” said a
Beijing-based coal trader.
About
732,584 tonnes of Russian coal were loaded and headed to China in the first two
weeks of May, data compiled by Mysteel showed.
Analysts
previously estimated China could import 20 million tonnes more Russian coal in
2022 than last year.
The
customs data on Friday also showed shipments from top supplier Indonesia,
mainly thermal coal, reached 15.95 million tonnes in April, up from 11.74
million tonnes a year before.
China’s
total coal imports in April jumped 43% versus the prior month, driven by panic
buying over concerns of supply disruptions stemming from Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine.
Arrivals
from Australia reached 129,142 tonnes in April, the data also showed, with the
fuel clearing customs after sitting in Chinese ports since late 2020 due to an
unofficial ban on Australian coal.