China demand may tighten coking coal trade-analyst

China is becoming a major coking coal importer and as a result the global market might face tightness once demand from the rest of the world increases, an analyst with Scotia Capital said in a research note.

“When end users of steel in the rest of the world finish de-stocking and begin to restock, global steel mills will likely find that China’s market shares for coking coal and iron ore have increased by such a big margin in the past few months that there is no excess left,” said Na Liu, an analyst with Scotia Capital, in a research note.
China’s overall coal imports have rocketed this year, hitting an all-time record of 9.16 million tonnes in April. Most went to China’s power sector, but 2.8 million tonnes was coking coal, principally used in steel making, official Chinese customs data showed.

Coking coal imports in April were more than 13 times higher than in January, before China’s steel industry began ramping up production on growing hopes of an economic revival.

Reuters