China's central government is still working on removing all barriers to coke exports by the end of this year, Huang Xin, director in the Department of Foreign Trade under the Ministry of Commerce, said on the sidelines of a coal industry conference in Beijing Thursday.
The World Trade Organization ruled in July last year that Beijing's export restrictions, including the 40% tax imposed since 2008 and the license and quota system that has been in place since 1995, were a violation of WTO bylaws.
"The new policy is not yet ready, but China will try to fix it before the deadline [December 31, 2012] under WTO rules," Huang said, adding that she could not, however, say exactly when the limitations, including export tax and quotas, will be removed.
A coke trading source said that the ministry had held a meeting on Wednesday, inviting suggestions for a policy change on coke exports. "But they did not seem to have a clear idea on how to modify the policy," the source said.
Market participants at the Coaltrans conference in Hong Kong earlier this week as well as Coaltrans Australia last month had said that China was unlikely to remove the export duty of 40% on coke.
In February, China agreed to act upon recommendations made by the WTO's dispute settlement board, before the December 31 deadline.
CHINA COKE EXPORTS EXPECTED TO REBOUND
China's coke exports could see a big rebound of volume once the coke export duty is removed, said Liu Yinan, vice chairman of the China Chamber of Commerce of Metals, Minerals & Chemicals Importers & Exporters.
Chinese coke producers aspire to export as the domestic market is weak, Liu said at the conference. He pointed out that as Ukrainian and Russian coke have a large share of the global seaborne market, Chinese coke would face strong competition. But China's coke exports would become more competitive as once the tariff is removed, the FOB price would fall below the current $400/mt level, he added.
