“Green” China: record coal imports from Russia and Australia
China is importing record volumes of coal, with purchases from Australia and Russia at multi-year highs, as Chinese authorities focus on strengthening energy security and the economy amid worsening quality of coal mined domestically.
China is mining record amounts of coal, but the quality of the fuel for burning electricity and making steel is lower than that of imports, so the world's largest coal consumer is increasing imports from Australia and China. Russia, according to Chinese customs data reported by Bloomberg.
Earlier this year, China received its first shipment of Australian coal in two years as Beijing signaled it was preparing to restore trade relations with its former major fossil fuel supplier.
Since then, China's coal imports from Australia have soared, as have imports from Russia, whose coal has been banned in the West for more than a year now.
As a result, Russia and Australia are gaining market share in China at the expense of Indonesia, according to analysts. Could this be an effect of the disputes in the South China Sea?
China's coal imports rose 12.9% in August from July, hitting a record high dating back to 2015. Imports also rose 53% from August last year, according to Chinese customs data.
With a significant decline in power output from China's massive hydropower sector due to low rainfall and drought, coal production, coal imports and coal-fired electricity generation have surged this year.
China is relying on coal to avoid blackouts after reopening its economy following Covid lockdowns. During the first half of this year, coal production, coal imports and coal-fired electricity generation increased, offsetting a significant decline in power output from China's huge hydropower capacity due to insufficient rainfall and Drought.
Lower international coal prices compared to record highs last year, when Russian coal was banned in the West, have also played a role in rising Chinese imports this year.
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The article “Green” China: record coal imports from Russia and Australia comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/cina-green-record-dimportazione-di-carbone-da-russia-e-australia/ on Thu, 21 Sep 2023 13:00:31 +0000.