China coal imports hit 22-month high

Beijing: China Customs announced yesterday that the nation imported 4,880,000 tons of coal in February, the highest amount for 22 months.
Experts said the main reasons for the substantial increase of importing coal were the cheap price of overseas coal and the low international sea freight. Zhai Ruoyu, general manager of Datang Group said, "Even including the sea freight, the price of importing coal is still lower than at home."
Chinese analysts observed that most of China's coal resources are located in the northwest of the country where it is expensive to transport from north to south by railway. Comparatively, transporting coal from Vietnam, Indonesia and Australia by sea to north China is much cheaper.  [18/03/09]