China’s coking coal imports peaked in 2012 and have been falling since. Last year China’s imports of coking coal fell to 48m tonnes, a drop of 23% on 2014 import volumes.
According Serafino Capoferri, a senior consultant for CRU, there has been a big reduction in the cost of domestic coking coal production in China make it much more competitive with seabourne imports than in the past.
Speaking at the Singapore Iron Ore Forum Capoferri said Chinese domestic coal is expected to be largely competitive versus seabourne imports in terms of price.
“Chinese met coal (coking coal) imports will remain flat,” he said. But it will be able to meet all demand from domestic production due to the low quality of the coal.
CRU expects demand for seabourne imports to be 30 – 40m tonnes in the coming years.
“China will not disappear from the seabourne market. It will remain an important but steady player in this industry for the next five years,” Capoferri concluded.
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