SEOUL: South Korea imported 7.1 million mt of thermal coal in February, falling 15.2% from 8.37 million mt in January and down 14.7% from 8.32 million mt in February 2015, according to customs data released late Wednesday. Of the February total, 6.6 million mt was bituminous coal while the remaining 487,519 mt was sub-bituminous coal.
For the first two months of 2016, South Korea imported 15.47 million mt, down 1.9% on the year. Australia remained the largest shipper of thermal coal to the country in February at 2.81 million mt, slipping 19% on the year and dropping 16% from January’s volume.
Imports from Indonesia in February fell 17% year on year to 2.67 million mt, also decreasing 14% from January’s nine-month high. South Korea’s thermal coal imports from Russia in February climbed 27% compared to the same month in 2015 to 1.28 million mt, but were down 11% month on month.
