Chinese imports of South African thermal coal continued to rise in September, with the country taking delivery of 1.82 million mt during the month, according to China customs data released Thursday.
September South African imports were the highest since December 2011, with China increasing its receipts of Richards Bay material by 10% on August and 3% on a year earlier.
Deliveries of bituminous coal from South Africa's Richards Bay export terminal landed in China at an average CFR price of $104.52/mt in September, down from $107.06/mt in August.
Sources have said that Chinese end-users prefer to secure lower calorific value, higher ash 5,500 kcal/kg NAR material from South Africa rather than the standard 6,000 kcal/kg NAR coal that is predominantly traded in the Atlantic market.
Chinese imports of Colombian and US thermal material continued to decline from their summer year-to-date peaks, with flows effectively shut off by a closing of the arbitrage window. China imported just 165,000 mt of Colombian coal in September, while US imports were 162,948 mt, with deliveries from the two origins peaking in July at 860,843 mt and 1.33 million mt respectively.
A combined 4.07 million mt of bituminous and sub-bituminous coal from Indonesia -- China's largest supplier of thermal coal -- landed in the country in September, down 6% on-month and 38% on the year. Indonesia also shipped in 3.67 million mt of low-grade material classified as lignite during the month.
Australia remained the second largest thermal exporter to China in September, although deliveries were considerably down on August. China's Australian receipts were just 2.65 million mt for the month, down 37% on August, but up from 2.51 million mt a year earlier.
