China's imports of Australian coal rebound above 50m tons in 2023 as ties thaw

China's imports of Australian coal recovered to more than 50 million tons in 2023, a big increase from the trivial amount in the previous year, data from China's General Administration of Customs (GAC) showed. It's a living example of the return of market confidence in the Australian major trade good amid thawing bilateral trade relations over the past year.

Experts believe that China's demand for imported coal in 2024 may persist. In the meantime, domestic suppliers have diversified their import sources to other countries including Russia, Mongolia and Indonesia, as part of their efforts to stabilize supply and market prices.

Data released by the GAC on Saturday showed that China imported 52.47 million tons of coal from Australia in 2023, a notable increase compared with only about 2.17 million tons in 2022.

The surge was driven by improved bilateral relations that helped restore market confidence in Australian goods including coal, experts said. The economic recovery since the downgraded epidemic response in the beginning of the year also boosted the coal trade.

Moreover, the import growth was part of the effort to further stabilize domestic coal prices. Since the beginning of 2023, overseas coal prices have been lower than domestic ones, and domestic companies were more willing to purchase imported coal, Zhang Feilong, an industry analyst, told the Global Times on Sunday, referring to the reason behind the coal import expansion.

In 2023, China's total coal imports exceeded 373 billion yuan ($52.41 billion), a year-on-year increase of 29.6 percent. In addition to Australia, countries such as Russia, Mongolia, Indonesia and India have become major coal suppliers to China. For example, Russia's coal supply to China surged to 102.13 million tons, surpassing the expected 100-million ton benchmark, according to sputniknews.cn.

China may import about 500 million tons of coal in 2024, and Australian coal imports may stay at a relatively stable level this year, Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, told the Global Times on Sunday.