China: floods close coal mines. Prices and imports from Russia are growing
Coal futures in China closed at a new record Monday after sixty coal mines in the country's main producing region were forced to close due to heavy rains, floods and landslides, worsening the energy supply crisis.
Coal futures at the local Zhengzhou Commodity E xchange jumped nearly 12% to close at the equivalent of $ 219 per ton on Monday, setting a new record, according to Bloomberg data.
Heavy rains in recent days have displaced nearly 2 million people in the northern Chinese province of Shanxi, which is the country's largest coal-producing area. About 60 coal mines out of a total of 682 mines in the province have been closed due to the flood.
The climate-related setbacks for China's coal production come at a time when the world's second largest economy is grappling with a coal supply shortage and energy crisis, which threaten to slow economic growth.
Just last week, Chinese authorities ordered 72 coal mines in Inner Mongolia to increase production by nearly 100 million tons in the midst of an energy crisis that saw factory closures and sparked fears of a power outage. global economy. China now allows coal mines to produce the dirtiest fossil fuel even if they have already met their production quotas.
It is also said that China has once again resorted to Australian coal to fill the supply gap that opens up in its energy security, naturally bought under the table, so as not to show that it is backing an adversary country which it has unofficially blocked. import a year ago. Russia will certainly increase its exports to Beijing, which among other things pays by circumventing the blocks imposed by Western sanctions.
China is struggling for energy supplies before winter, with a global shortage of natural gas and coal leading to record fuel prices in Asia. China has also reportedly ordered its state-owned energy companies to secure supplies "at all costs" despite rising prices for liquefied natural gas (LNG) and coal. For now the situation is still under control due to the lockdown in China, but as soon as the recovery starts we will see an explosion in the prices of energy materials.
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The article China: Floods Shut Down Coal Mines. Prices are growing and imports from Russia come from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/cina-le-alluvioni-chiudono-le-miniere-di-carbone-crescono-i-prezzi-e-limport-dalla-russia/ on Mon, 02 May 2022 07:00:09 +0000.