China will not import coal from Australia, despite the energy crisis, consider CNBC analysts. Thus, China postponed the solution of the energy problem.
Australia is one of the largest coal suppliers to China. In 2019, China accounted for 38 percent of the import of all Australian coal. China stopped purchasing coal from Australia at the end of 2020. The reason was the appeal of the Australian authorities to conduct an international investigation about the causes of COVID-19.
In early October, the media reported that China resumed small purchases of Australian coal, which caused rumors about the immediate removal of the ban. Beijing will not buy coal from Australia, confident analyst in mining and energy goods from Commonwealth Bank of Australia Vivec Dhar. With him, the main analyst Wood Mackenzie Rory Simington agrees. “The political situation did not improve at all, and this is mainly a political issue, and not economic. There are no signs of weakening the ban on new loads,” said Simington.
China will continue to search for coal in other countries, suggested an analyst for research of dry cargo from the Braver ACM ship brokerage company in October. Beijing will try to satisfy demand due to coal from Mongolia, Russia and Indonesia. From January to August, the share of Indonesia accounted for 57 percent of the entire coal import of China. There are also examples of purchasing coal from the USA and Colombia. According to the end of October, suppliers from the United States and Canada walked Russian coal sales companies to China.
Despite the lack of applications from China, the Australian port of Newcastle is the world’s largest exporting coal – increased external supplies. This happened due to increased demand from North Asia countries on the eve of winter.
The lack of coal has become one of the reasons for the energy crisis in China. At the end of September, the country began to turn off electricity in residential buildings and production due to lack of electricity. The lack of coal occurred due to the introduction of restrictions on its use for the sake of reduced carbon dioxide emissions.