BEIJING, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- China has decided to further limit coal import and keep this year's imports no more than that of 207, which is predicted to put the coal price on the Chinese market stay high in the remaining months of this year.
A work conference on coal imports of six coastal provinces was recently held in Guangzhou, during which relevant departments have decided to keep a “total control” over coal imports for the whole year of 2018, a source with knowledge of the matter told Shanghai Securities News on Tuesday.
China imported 199.923 million tonnes of coal in the first eight months this year, 27.863 million tonnes more than the same period of 2017, which leaves only 63.027 million tonne import quota for September to December, or 15.757 million tonnes per month on average, which is 7 million tonnes shorter as compared with monthly average imports in previous years, according to an industry insider, noting that this would greatly affect the balance between supply and demand in coastal coal market in following months.
What’s more, the hiking oil prices since September added coal transportation cost which also pushed up coal prices.
Shenhua Group, China’s largest coal enterprise, announced its long-term contract coal price for October is 624 yuan/tonne for 5,500 kcal power coal, up 22 yuan/tonne compared with a month earlier. (Edited by Niu Huizhe, niuhuizhe@xinhua.org)