Australia surpassed Mongolia in coking coal exports to China

The latest monthly statistics released by the Chinese Customs Office indicate that in February Australia surpassed Mongolia’s coking coal exports to China.

China, the world’s biggest consumer of coal, imported 5.4 million tonne in February 2013, an increase of around 116% from the same period in 2012.

In 2012 Mongolia was the top supplier of coking coal to China, with Australia trailing far behind. But by February 2013, Australia was exporting more coking coal to China than Mongolia.

Australia’s coking coal exports to China reached 2.58 million tonne in February 2013. Canada ranked next with 1.21 million tonne of coal exports to China, followed by Russia with 527,300 tonne, and the United States with 408,700 tonne.

Mongolia’s exports to China dropped to 336,000 tonne in February 2013, a decrease of 76% from January and 80.7% lower than for the corresponding period of 2012.

The drop in Mongolia’s coal exports is largely due to the halt in shipments to China earlier this year of coal from Mongolia’s largest coal mine, Tavan Tolgoi, which is operated by state owned Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi. The halt in shipments was reportedly due to financial troubles experienced by the company.

In December, the Mongolian government agreed to provide Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi with a loan of 200 million USD.

Mr Ya.Batsuuri CEO of of Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi said that the government had since decided to increase that amount to 355 million USD.

Meanwhile, the company originally planned to release an Initial Public Offering on international stock exchanges, but the release was delayed due to worries that the recent difficulties might hinder the price of shares.

Source – Mongol News

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