<article><p class="lead">Japan's coking coal imports were largely unchanged in 2019, despite a slowdown in steel production that could lead to cuts in contract volumes in the future. </p><p>Japan imported 69.39mn t of coking coal last year, a drop of just 0.2pc from 69.54mn t in 2018, according to finance ministry data. That slight downturn was driven mainly by a 5pc drop in shipments from Australia to 31.4mn t. </p><p>Imports from the US rose by 8pc to 9.07mn t, while imports from Canada increased by 4pc to 7.05mn t. </p><p>Japan imported 6.28mn t of coking coal in December, up by 2.5pc from a year earlier and nearly unchanged from 6.32mn t in November.</p><p>Coking coal imports from top supplier Australia fell by 10pc from a year earlier to 2.52mn t in December. Imports from Indonesia fell by 13pc to 1.56mn t, while arrivals from Russia dropped by 16pc to 392,698t over the same period. Imports from the US fell by 34pc to 552,369t. </p><p>Japan's imports of Canadian coking coal almost tripled year on year to 996,685t in December. Arrivals from Mozambique totalled 146,213t, while imports from Colombia, China, and New Zealand were at 51,271t, 22,000t and 33,000t respectively.</p><p>The Argus spot price assessment for premium low-volatile hard coking coal averaged $136.73/t fob Australia in December, up by 1pc from the November average of $134.90/t. </p><p>Japan's metallurgical coke imports rose by 23pc from a month earlier to 33,624t in December, but were substantially lower compared to 90,541t in December 2018 as Japanese steel mills continued to cut production amid weaker steel prices. </p><p>Japan's met coke imports in 2019 as a whole were 758,024t, down by 55pc from 2018 as more Japanese steel mills expended their own coke production. Almost all of Japan's met coke imports in 2019 came from China. </p><p class="lead"><i>By Dylan Wong</i></p></article>
