BEIJING: Shipments from China’s largest coal supplier Australia fell 19 percent in August, while arrivals from Russia jumped to one of the highest levels in recent years amid robust demand for lower-cost foreign material from steel mills and power plants.
China imported coal from North Korea for the first time since February, data showed on Tuesday, even as United Nations sanctions have banned sales of the fuel from the isolated country. It was not immediately clear why shipments had resumed. August arrivals from Australia dropped 19 percent from the same month a year ago to 7 million tonnes, data from the General Administration of Customs showed. The figure was also down from last month’s 7.47 million tonnes. Shipments from Russia were up 20 percent at 2.47 million tonnes, the data showed. Indonesian coal supplies fell 5.4 percent on a year ago to 3.51 million tonnes, while Mongolian arrivals were up 1.2 percent to 2.4 million tonnes.
