China's coking coal imports surged 72% year on year to 5.09 million mt in March, according to data released Friday by the General Administration of Customs.
Imports for the first three months of the year totaled 11.43 million mt, up 5% from the same period a year ago. The rise in March imports reverses the downtrend seen in the first two months of the year.
The increase in China's imports is consistent with Platts data, which showed buying for March deliveries had increased just before the Lunar New Year holidays in early February, for restocking purposes.
Based on origin of the coking coal, the year-to-date import volume into China from Australia shot up 41% month on month and 65% year on year. But the month-on-month increase in imports from Russia, Canada and Mongolia of 68% to 0.23 million mt, 72% to 0.72 million mt and 152% to 1.55 million mt, respectively, dwarfed the rise in Australian imports.
The Australian market share has currently shrunk to 50% from 60% at the end of February.
China's March coking coal exports slid 3% year on year to 139,194 mt. Of this volume, South Korea received 109,677 mt, Japan received 19,251 and North Korea 10,266 mt. The year-to-date volume was still up 15% at 0.37 million mt over the same period last year.
