Coal news and updates

Nil coal exports from RBCT to China since February

India Coal Market Watch

November 18: There have been no exports of coal from South Africa’s (SA’s) Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) to China for the last eight months till October, 2015 on account of lack of demand from this Asian country, as its economy continues to be in the grip of a slowdown.

Consequently, compared to nil exports from the South African coal terminal to this country in the first seven months (April-October) of the current fiscal of 2015-16, volumes stood at 381,805 tons in the same period of the previous fiscal, as per information available with ICMW.

According to the data, Chinese companies stopped buying steam coal from South Africa after last procuring 164,784 tons in February 2015. Prior to that, China imported 164,999 tons of coal from RBCT in June 2014.

As a result, total imports of coal into China from RBCT in the first 10 months of 2015 have remained at 164,784 tons. Coal exports to China from RBCT were at 2,492,629 tons during the same period in 2014.

Following are the monthly details of coal imports by China from RBCT in 2015 and 2014 (in tons):