Russia raises coking coal exports to China as its overall coal share declines
Russian coking coal shipments to China rose 16% to 17.3 million tonnes in the first six months of the year. However, total Russian coal exports to China fell 20% to 34.9 million tonnes as thermal coal shipments weakened and Mongolia expanded its presence.
Coking coal shipments rise 16%
Russian coking coal exports to China reached 17.3 million tonnes in the first six months of the year, an increase of 16% from the same period a year earlier, Vedomosti reported. Chinese industrial buyers increased purchases as Russian material became more price-competitive and domestic coal production in China declined.
Shipments peaked in March at 3.38 million tonnes, 19% above the level recorded in March of the previous year. June also produced strong growth: Chinese customs data showed imports of Russian coking coal rising 36% year on year to 3.17 million tonnes.
During the first quarter, shipments increased 9%, or 0.73 million tonnes, to 8.88 million tonnes. The value of exported material rose 5.6% to $1 billion, even as the average price of Russian metallurgical coal supplied to Asian buyers decreased 3% to $112.8 per tonne.
Thermal coal pulls total exports lower
The expansion in coking coal contrasted with a sharp decline in Russia's broader coal trade with China. Total shipments of all Russian coal grades fell by 8.7 million tonnes, or 20%, to 34.9 million tonnes in the first half of the year. The figures indicate that stronger demand from steelmaking customers was not sufficient to offset weaker deliveries of coal used for power generation.
The downturn was already visible in the first two months, when total exports declined 15% to 10.8 million tonnes. January shipments fell 3% to 6.1 million tonnes, while February volumes dropped 26% to 4.7 million tonnes. Thermal coal recorded the largest contraction, falling 30% to 3.3 million tonnes, while anthracite shipments decreased 4% to 1.8 million tonnes.
For Russian producers, the divergence increases the importance of product mix. Coking coal has benefited from Chinese steel-sector demand and a lower average selling price, while suppliers with greater exposure to thermal grades face weaker volumes in their largest Asian sales channels.
Mongolia gains ground in China
China imported 225.4 million tonnes of hard coal from all suppliers during the first six months, 1.6% more than a year earlier. Russia remained China's second-largest source of coking coal, but its share of China's total coal imports fell from 29.6% to 26.4% in the first quarter.
Mongolia was the main source of competitive pressure. Its metallurgical coal exports to China nearly doubled to 18.71 million tonnes, placing the landlocked supplier ahead of Russia's first-half coking coal volume. The combination of expanding Mongolian shipments and declining Russian thermal coal deliveries is reshaping China's supply structure even as its overall hard coal imports continue to grow.
Price competitiveness will remain central for Russian exporters. The 3% reduction in the average metallurgical coal price supported higher physical sales, but the simultaneous loss of overall market share shows that performance in one coal segment does not translate automatically into gains across the wider market. Producers, traders and logistics operators must therefore weigh stronger coking coal demand against lower thermal coal throughput and rising competition from Mongolia.