Australia’s February coal exports to China pass 2mn

Australian coal exports to China increased to more than 2mn t in February, initial shipping data show, as Australia exporters' confidence in Beijing's import processes grows.

Australia exported 140,000t of thermal and no coking coal to China in January, official data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show, which aligns with the 134,000t of coal shipped from the Queensland port of Gladstone that month and with initial shipping data for January. But the trade has increased to around 2.1mn t in February, despite significant supply issues at Gladstone associated with a derailment and the New South Wales (NSW) port of Newcastle because of a inventory rebuild.

Newcastle, which is largely a thermal coal port with around 10pc semi-soft coking coal throughput, supplied around 1.3mn t of the February shipments to China, according to initial shipping data collated by Argus. The remainder is supplied by the Queensland coking and thermal coal ports of Abbot Point and Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal, with one Capesize vessel leaving from the NSW port of Port Kembla bound for Ningbo, China.

Australia's total thermal coal shipments slipped to 14.77mn t in January from a revised 16.93mn t in December and from 17.09mn t in January 2022, according to trade data from the ABS supplied through GTT. Shipments remained depressed in February, based on the lower shipments from the key port of Newcastle.

Australian thermal coal shipments to India remained firm at 1.99mn t after dipping in 2022 because of high Australian coal export prices. There were no Australian coal exports to Europe in January, down from 595,000t in December 2022. Energy shortages saw shipments to Europe more than double to 3.79mn t in 2022 from 1.65mn t in 2021, with the number of importing countries rising to seven from two.

Australia's average thermal coal export price for all grades combined was $276.36/t in January, down from $279.43/t in December but up from $156.63/t in January 2022, according to the ABS. Prices were based on the ABS January Australian-US dollar exchange rate of 0.6949, which was above 0.6752 in December and close to the average of 0.695 for the whole of 2022.

The average Argus-assessed spot price was $377.57/t fob Newcastle for 6,000 kcal/kg coal and $134.65/t for 5,000 kcal/kg coal in January compared with $399.17/t and $135.96/t respectively in December and $216.31/t and $125.28/t in January 2022. The average was $227.93/t and $124.40/t respectively in February.

Argus last assessed high-grade 6,000 kcal/kg NAR thermal coal at $191.45/t fob Newcastle on 3 March, down from $249.79/t on 3 February and from a peak of $444.59/t on 9 September. It assessed lower grade 5,500 kcal/kg NAR coal at $116.98/t fob Newcastle on 3 March, down from $128.93/t on 3 February and from $137.53/t on 25 November.

By Jo Clarke

Australia thermal coal exports	(mn t)
Jan	% ± vs Dec	% ± vs Jan '22	FY2022	% ± vs FY2021
Japan	6.78	-14.71	-13.46	86.42	7.02
South Korea	1.80	-27.52	-53.35	23.53	-38.24
Taiwan	1.59	14.70	-17.36	23.57	-13.39
India	1.99	-2.79	120.60	9.48	-47.83
Vietnam	0.94	40.11	54.21	9.59	20.49
Total	14.77	-12.76	-13.60	178.27	-10.32
Source: ABS, GTT
Total is for all destinations not just those listed

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