China's coking coal imports posted a month-on-month rise of 11.35% in April, due mainly to restart of Mongolian exports and recovered demand from downstream sectors as economic activities gain strength.

Mongolia reopened its border in late March and Chinese buyers picked up cargoes that were diverted from other countries still under Covid-19 lockdowns. Clear price edge of imported material over Chinese domestic supplies was also a main driver behind the increase in coking coal imports.

China imported 6.28 million tonnes of coking coal in April, up from 5.64 million tonnes in March, but down by 15.4% from a year earlier, according to Chinese customs data.

January-April imports rose by 13.6% on the year to 27.08 million tonnes, showed the data.

Imports of Australian coking coal increased 2.2% from March to 4.47 million tonnes in April, up 64.4% on the year. The January-April imports rose by 84.2% to 19.2 million tonnes on the year.

Mongolian coking coal imports into China increased to 775,242 tonnes in April from 49,580 tonnes in March, but fell by 79% from 3.69 million tonnes a year earlier. Mongolian imports restarted in late March but with fewer daily coal trucks allowed through border checkpoints.

The significant discount of seaborne material compared to domestic coal also fuelled the import surge.

Russian coking coal imports into China rose 63.6% on the month and 19.9% on the year to 605,145 tonnes in April, taking the January-April volume up by 16.9% at 1.93 million tonnes.

Chinese intakes of Canadian coking coal fell by 57.7% from March but grew 44.1% from the previous year to 240,290 tonnes in April, and imports of US coking coal fell by 31.4% month on month and 70.3% year on year to 91,661 tonnes.

(Writing by Jessie Jia  Editing by Harry Huo)
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