In the first 5 months, the Asian major coal buyers, China, Japan, Korea, India and Vietnam only unloaded 327.7 million tonnes of coal, which is 10% down compared with same period of last year, 6% down from 2019.
Of which, China and Vietnam's fall were tremendous, 25% for China and 33 negative done by Vietnam.
Japan's fall was only 3%, Korea kept a minus 5%YoY while only India's coal imports in Jan-May achieved a 5% increase over same period of 2020.
The five major buyers' aggregate coal imports reached peak in 2020 with the figure of 364.9 million tonnes in 5 months time. In 2020, total seaborne coal trade was 1 130 million tonnes which means the five major Asian economies accounted for 77.4% of worlds' total buys.
The good thing is changed cargo flow due to China's ban to Australian coal, which produces more ton-miles for the black burn. In 2020, Australian coal & coking coal export to China took 35% China's share. The gap needs to be filled up by other origins.
Source: Simon Young
The opinions expressed herein are the author's and not necessarily those of The Xinde Marine News.
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