China increased coking coal imports to a record level in 2024

China’s imports of coking coal in 2024 increased by 19.7% compared to 2023 to 121.7 million tons. Supplies reached a historic high. This is reported by Kallanish.

In December, imports of coking coal to the country decreased by 12.9% compared to the previous month to 10.7 million tons. The value of imports for the year increased by 7% y/y – to $18.5 billion.

In 2024, Mongolia and Russia became the key suppliers of raw materials – 53.9 million tons (+5.3% y/y) and 30.2 million tons (+7.7% y/y), respectively. In December, Mongolia shipped 4.2 million tons of coking coal to China (-19.1% mom).

Australia and the US increased shipments to 10.3 million tons and 10.7 million tons, respectively. Shipments from Indonesia fell by 6% y/y – to 2.8 million tons.

Coke exports from China in December 2024 increased by 3.9% compared to the previous month, but decreased by 28.9% y/y – to 557.13 thousand tons. Annual exports decreased by 5.3% y/y – to 8.3 million tons.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2023, China increased its imports of coking coal by 60.6% year-on-year – to 100 million tons. In monetary terms, the value of these imports amounted to $17.22 billion, up 15.1% y/y.

At the end of 2024, China reduced steel production by 1.7% year-on-year – to 1.005 billion tons. This is the lowest figure in five years. 2024 is likely to be the last year when steel production in China exceeded 1 billion tons. Emissions in the country’s steel industry increased by 4.1% y/y over the year.