Coal news and updates

China continues to snap up Russian coal at steep discounts

Despite lower demand and higher domestic production, China has bought significantly higher amounts of Russian coal since May, says Pranay Shukla from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

"This is because Russia has been offering very steep discounts on prevailing international coal prices," he said.

Indonesia, Russia and Mongolia are currently the top coal exporters to China.

Russia's coal shipments to China have been rising even though overall shipments to China have declined, new data from S&P Global Market Intelligence showed.

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Russian seaborne coal deliveries to China surged 55% to 6.2 million tonnes in the first 28 days of June compared to the same period last year, S&P's Commodities at Sea database showed. In May, Russian seaborne supply to China also rose by 20% year-on-year to 5.5 million tonnes.

Domestic production in China has also been increasing. The latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China showed that between January and May, raw coal production rose 10.4% year-on-year to 1.81 billion tonnes, while imports dropped to around 96 million tonnes — down 13.6% compared to a year ago.

"Despite lower demand and higher domestic coal production, China has been buying significantly higher Russian coal since May 2022," S&P Global Market Intelligence associate director Pranay Shukla said told CNBC.