China will no longer be the strong driver of the international thermalcoal market that it has been in the past three years, Deutsche Bank saidFriday in a report.
Using annualized year-to-date figures, Deutsche Bank said China's 2013coal imports would grow by no more than 25% from 2012, compared with 44% inthe preceding three years.
The country's total net imports are on track to reach 246 million mt in2013, down from 280 million mt in 2012, Deutsche Bank said. It used data fromJanuary through April for the estimate.
The report said China's government policies aim to cut coal consumptionby 200 million mt within two years in three pilot regions:Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta.
This will likely result in a slowdown in net thermal coal imports,especially as the pilot regions are near the coast, which typically importsmore coal than inland regions.
