Combined coal stocks at China's four major Bohai Sea ports fell 570,000 mt or 3.4% week on week to 15.56 million mt Sunday, Qinhuangdao Port data released Monday showed.
Qinhuangdao Port's coal stocks stood at 6.51 million mt Sunday, down 2.4% from the previous week. Stocks at Jingtang Port fell 9.6% week on week to 3.48 million mt, and at Caofeidian Port fell 1.3% to 2.35 million mt. Stocks at Tianjin Port edged up 20,000 mt or 0.1% week on week to 3.23 million mt.
The number of vessels in queues at the four ports totaled 216 Sunday, compared with 219 on August 19, Qinhuangdao Port said in the statement.
There were 130 vessels queuing Sunday at Qinhuangdao Port, up two from the previous week; 31 at Jingtang Port, up by one; 35 at Tianjin Port, up by three; and 20 at Caofeidian Port, down by nine.
Meanwhile, coal stocks at Fangcheng Port in southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, a key import facility for coal from South Africa, stood at 6.1 million mt Monday, down slightly from 6.15 million mt a week ago, according to a source at Fangcheng Port.
The port currently has a design coal storage capacity of 8 million mt.
An increase in outbound shipments is behind the drop in coal stocks, the port source said. Two Panamax coal vessel are slated for unloading at Fangcheng Port in the coming week.
