South Korea's offtake of coal from the eastern Australian port of Gladstone jumped to its highest in 27 months in October at 1.4 million mt, up 60% increase on September's shipments of 873,000 mt to the Asian country, said Gladstone Ports Corporation in an operating report, Wednesday.
Power utilities in South Korea have been aggressively tendering for shipments of thermal coal throughout 2015, and this could be reflected in its increased pick-up in Gladstone coal.
Over January-October, South Korea imported 9.1 million mt of coal from Gladstone port, compared with 7.9 million mt a year earlier, the port data showed.
Gladstone port's coal shipments to South Korea touched a record high of 1.475 million mt in July 2013.
South Korea's offtake of coal shipments from Gladstone port exceeded that by India, another strong importer of coal from the Queensland port.
Indian customers booked 1.28 million mt of coal from Gladstone port's three coal terminals in October, down 23.5% from 1.68 million mt in September. India imported 12.33 million mt of coal from Gladstone port over January-October, compared with 11.2 million mt a year ago.
CHINA DEMAND GOES UP
China's demand for Gladstone coal rose to 956,000 mt in October, up 53% from 624,000 mt in September.
Last month bucked a steady trend of falling offtake by China, which over January-October has taken delivery of 9.6 million mt of Gladstone coal, down substantially from 14.3 million mt in the first 10 months of 2014.
Japan, another major customer, consumed 1.68 million mt of coal from Gladstone in October, down 16% from 2 million mt in September.
Taiwan received 318,000 mt of Gladstone coal in October, steady from September's 311,000 mt.
Over January-October it imported 2.96 million mt, slightly higher than 2.44 million mt a year ago.
Gladstone port ships thermal and metallurgical coal from around 20 mines located in central Queensland's Bowen Basin and controlled by various companies including Anglo American, Cockatoo Coal, Idemitsu and Glencore.
The port has exported 59.3 million mt of coal over January-October, up 1 million mt from a year earlier.
