[Ferro-Alloys.com]

  China's Australian coal import restrictions force the world's major importers and exporters to readjust the flow of coal.

  Although Indonesia is China's second largest supplier, China's demand for Indonesian coal has surged as China's coal imports from Australia have fallen to almost zero.

  On the other hand, Indonesia is likely to lose its market share in India, where Australia used to export only steam coal.

  The December data compiled by refinitiv clearly shows the change of coal flow direction.

  China imported 447523 tons of coal from Australia in December, significantly lower than 9.64 million tons in June 2020, and the lowest level since refiniv began compiling ship tracking and port data in January 2015. It is worth noting that the refinitiv data measures only the goods unloaded.

  However, China imported 12.19 million tons of coal from Indonesia in December, which exceeded the record of 10.47 million tons in April 2019 and almost tripled the record of 4.3 million tons in November.

  On the other hand, India imported 6.24 million tons of coal from Australia in December, up from 5.06 million tons in November and 5.48 million tons in October. The import volume in the last three months has exceeded the peak of - 4.81 million tons since 2019.

  India imported 5.65 million tons of coal from Indonesia in December, lower than Australia's, compared with 5.82 million tons and 6.75 million tons in the previous two months.

  It is worth noting that most of Australia's coal exports to India are coking coal, but ship tracking data show that the quantity of steam coal is also increasing, perhaps because Australian miners are seeking new markets to make up for the loss of imports from China.

• [Editor:Catherine Ren]