Australia's Gladstone port shipped 415,000 mt of coal exports to China last month, spiking 176% from February's 150,000 mt, which was a seven-year low at the time, Gladstone Ports Corporation said in an operating report Tuesday.
China's offtake of coal exports at Gladstone port last month was less than half its 983,000 mt in March 2015, GPC data showed.
Over January-March, China took delivery of 1.13 million mt of Gladstone coal shipments, down 56.5% year on year from 2.6 million mt in January-March 2015, according to the data.
India's offtake of coal exports at Gladstone port rose 10% month on month in March to 1.3 million mt from 1.18 million mt in February, and its shipment volume was 1.25 million mt in March 2015, the data showed.
A total of 3.6 million mt of coal exports were shipped to India from Gladstone port in the January-March quarter, up from 2.8 million mt in the corresponding 2015 period.
Customers in Japan booked 1.99 million mt of Gladstone's total coal shipments of 5.66 million mt in March, making it the leading destination for coal exports, according to the GPC operating report.
Japan's offtake was up 27.5% month on month from 1.56 million mt in February, said the report.
Shipments to South Korea from Gladstone's coal terminals were steady in March at 1.3 million mt, from 1.26 million mt in February, bringing its total for the January-March quarter to 4.1 million mt.
For the year-ago quarter, Gladstone had shipped 2.58 million mt of coal cargoes to South Korea.
Fifteen mines operated by companies including BHP Billiton-Mitsubishi Alliance, Ensham Resources, Jellinbah Resources, Wesfarmers and Yancoal Australia supply coal exports to Gladstone port and its three coal terminals in Queensland.
