China increased coking coal imports by 60.6% y/y in 2023

In 2023, China increased imports of coking coal by 60.6% year-on-year – to 100 million tons. This is reported by Sxcoal with reference to the country’s General Administration of Customs.

In monetary terms, the value of these imports in 2023 amounted to $17.22 billion, up 15.1% year-on-year.

Last December, Chinese steelmakers increased imports of coking coal by 77.3% y/y and 15.5% m/m – to 11.46 million.

The value of coking coal imports in December amounted to $1.95 billion, up 59.8% y/н and 23.6% m/m, with an average price of $170.5/t, down $18.7/t from the previous year.

In 2023, Chinese steelmakers increased iron ore imports by 6.6% compared to 2022, to 1.179 billion tons. In December 2023, this figure increased by 11% year-on-year – to 100.9 million tons.

As GMK Center reported earlier, Chinese steelmakers produced 1.019 billion tons of steel in 2023, up 0.6% compared to 2022. The downward trend in the country’s steel industry has thus stopped after two consecutive years of production decline. Last year, the Chinese authorities did not impose restrictions on steel production in line with their ambitions to reduce carbon emissions, which contributed to an increase in production and revenue of local steelmakers.