Japan's thermal coal imports (bituminous and sub-bituminous coal) fell 10.11% from a year ago and 21.91% from a month ago to 7.13 million tonnes in May, hitting the lowest level since June 2015, data showed.

The country imported 44.93 million tonnes of thermal coal in January-May, down 2.07% compared with a year earlier, data showed from the Japan Ministry of Finance.

Bituminous Coal

In May, Japan imported 6.59 million tonnes of bituminous coal, falling 10.48% from the preceding year and 24.31% from the month prior.

Australia remained the largest bituminous coal supplier, shipping 4.47 million tonnes to Japan in the month, down 14.39% year on year and 25.88% from the month-ago level.

Followed was Russia, exporting 981,000 tonnes, up 19.05% on the year but down 16.2% month on month.

Japan took 740,200 tonnes of bituminous coal from Indonesia in May, 24.07% higher than a year ago but 16.53% lower compared with the month-ago level.

The value of bituminous coal imports in May was down 31.53% month-on-month to 57.18 billion yen, with the average price calculated at 8,725.4 yen/t, down 9.54% on the month.

Sub-bituminous Coal

Japan imported 545,300 tonnes of sub-bituminous coal in May, down 5.35% from the year ago but up 26.7% from April.

Shipments from Indonesia dropped 5.1% on the year but climbed 37.44% on the month to 431,700 tonnes.

Japan bought 91,600 tonnes of sub-bituminous coal from Australia in the month, a 10.63% rise year on year. The country didn't import any sub-bituminous coal from Australia in April.

Total sub-bituminous coal imports were worth 4.04 billion yen over May, up 26.02% from the month prior. That translated to an average import price of 4,847.04 yen/t, up 19.58% from the month before.

(Writing by Emma Yang  Editing by Jessie Jia)
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