China Continues To Snap Up Russian Coal At Steep Discounts

• Russia’s coal shipments to China have been rising even though overall shipments to China have declined, new data from S&P Global Market Intelligence showed. 
• Russian seaborne coal deliveries to China surged 55% to 6.2Mn tonnes in the first 28 days of June compared to the same period last year, S&P’s Commodities at Sea database showed. In May, Russian seaborne supply to China also rose by 20% year-on-year to 5.5Mn tonnes. 
• Domestic production in China has also been increasing. The latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China showed that between January and May, raw coal production rose 10.4% year-on-year to 1.81Bn tonnes, while imports dropped to around 96Mn tonnes — down 13.6% compared to a year ago. 
• “Despite lower demand and higher domestic coal production, China has been buying significantly higher Russian coal since May 2022,” S&P Global Market Intelligence associate director Pranay Shukla said told CNBC. 
• Russia is a major global coal producer and exporter. However, since its invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has been forced to sell coal at a discount after countries like Japan banned Russian imports of the commodity.

(Source: CNBC)