Thailand imported 1.23 million mt of coal in July, down 41.2% from a year earlier, customs data released Tuesday showed.
It imported 527,313 mt of bituminous coal, down 43.8% from 937,401 mt a year earlier. The top suppliers in July were Indonesia with 378,028 mt, down 22% year on year, and Australia with 148,082 mt, down 67.2%.
Thailand imported 4,270 mt of anthracite coal in July, down 22.8% year on year, all from China.
Imports of other coals were 701,081 mt, down 39.3% from July 2015. They came mainly from Indonesia (644,220 mt, down 41.5% year on year) and Russia (56,810 mt against none last year).
In the first seven months, Thailand imported 12.36 million mt of coal, down 3.8% from 12.86 million mt during January-July 2015.
Of this, 6.13 million mt were bituminous coal, down 0.9% year on year.
The major supplier was Indonesia with 3.79 million mt, down 1.9% year on year, followed by Australia with 2.26 million mt, down 2.3% from the same period last year, according to the data.
Thailand's anthracite coal imports in the first seven months declined 34.9% from a year ago to 51,629 mt and came from Russia (19,718 mt, from none a year earlier) and China (16,333 mt, up 42.6% year on year).
It imported 6.18 million mt of other coals during January-July, down 6.2% from 6.59 million mt a year ago, mainly from Indonesia with 5.8 million mt, down 9.6% year on year.
Thailand produced 8.25 million mt of lignite in the first half of the year, up 7.7% from 7.66 million mt in the same period last year, according to data released August 12 by the Energy Policy and Planning Office.
Data for domestic output in July and over January-July is scheduled to be released on September 12.
The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand accounts for most of the country's domestic lignite production, which is mainly sent to its own power plants.
During H1, the country consumed 20.18 million mt of coal and lignite, up 8.3% from a year earlier. Of this, coal accounted for 58.7%, or 11.85 million mt, up 7.7% year on year.
Coal-fired power plants in the kingdom consumed 12.3 million mt of coal and lignite in H1, accounting for 60.9% of the total and up 10.2% year on year.
The remainder was used by other industrial sectors, EPPO data showed.
