Record China imports unlikely to excite coal market: Clyde Russell
Australia shipped 9.7 million tonnes to China in December, a gain of 165 percent on the year-earlier month, taking the increase for the whole of 2012 to 82.6 percent.
In contrast, Indonesia managed to increase exports to China by 5.3 percent in 2012, just managing to hold onto its status as the top supplier.
Australian coal generally has more energy and is cleaner burning that the more low-rank supplies from Indonesia, so it appears that Chinese buyers are taking advantage of low regional prices to change to buying better quality coal.
This implies that currently the good export volumes being achieved are a function of the low prevailing prices, and even if prices do rise, there may well be a pullback in both Chinese and Indian demand for seaborne coal.
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