China’s Australian coal imports surge to six-year high
China's coal imports from Australia surged in September to their highest level since April 2020, before Beijing's unofficial ban on Australian coal imports disrupted trade, customs data showed on Tuesday.
Shipments from Australia rose 56% from a year earlier to 9.81-million metric tons, customs data showed, the highest since April 2020, before a political rift disrupted coal purchases for much of 2021 and 2022.
China more than quadrupled its imports of Australian steelmaking coal to 2.43-million tons in the month as the aftermath of a deadly accident at a coking coal mine in China’s Shanxi in May continued to constrain domestic supply.
Australian coal exporters also benefited from a squeeze on Indonesian coal exports amid ongoing adjustments to Indonesia’s export quota approval process and low river levels in the key coal-producing region of Kalimantan that disrupted logistics.
Indonesian coal imports fell 32% year on year to 14.62-million tons.
Russian coal imports also helped fill the gap, rising 39% on the year to 9.43-million tons, the highest since June 2024.
Mongolia saw September shipments ease 8% to 8.56-million tons, but its year-to-date total was still up 40% at 86.93-million tons, the biggest gain among China’s major suppliers.
China’s overall coal imports fell 6% in September on high domestic inventories and the Indonesia supply constraints.
At a US-China presidential summit last month, the two sides agreed China would import 10-million tons of coal annually from the US in 2027 and 2028, or roughly 2% of China’s coal imports each year.
China has imported almost no US coal since Beijing imposed a 15% retaliatory tariff in February 2025, taking in just 29 663 tons in the first nine months of 2026, compared with nearly 12-million tons over the same period a year earlier.