China imported 3.926 million mt of metallurgical coal in July, 3.2% less than in July 2011 and down 39.5% from June, customs data released Wednesday showed.
Mongolia was again the largest contributor to China's imports, with 1.66 million mt of coking coal, up 7% year on year, but significantly lower than the 2.52 million mt in June.
Next was Australia, with 681,990 mt, down 36% year on year. Australian shipments to China have declined for eight consecutive months. Canada followed closely behind with 612,111 mt, up from 471,899 mt in July 2011.
Indonesia with 414,703 mt pipped Russia with 409,070 mt to the next spot, while the US saw a multi-year low of 74,747 mt of the steelmaking ingredient shipped into China.
Customs data also showed that so far this year, 121,763 mt of Mozambique coal has been shipped into China. The vast majority of this is likely to be from mining company Vale, which was the first to export coal from the East African country.
In addition, this year, China has so far imported 373,324 mt of New Zealand coking coal, 108,680 mt of Iranian material and 42,279 mt of Colombian coking coal