Japanese coking coal imports dip in September

Japanese coking coal imports fell in September amid a drop in shipments from top supplier Australia as prices climbed.

Japan imported 5.48mn t of coking coal in September, down by 7.5pc from August. Imports in September also fell by 8.4pc from the same month last year, according to finance ministry data.

Australia remained the largest coking coal exporter to Japan in September with 2.28mn t, but shipments fell by 22pc from August. Imports from Indonesia were little changed at 1.25mn t.

Japanese imports of US coking coal dropped by 16.2pc from August to 739,689t as some US east coast ports briefly closed as Hurricane Florence made landfall last month. Japanese imports from Canada rose by 150pc to 789,018t over the same period.

Coking coal shipments from Russia fell by 55.7pc from August to 173,681t, while imports from Colombia more than doubled to 69,000t. Japan also imported 131,044t of coking coal from New Zealand and 54,002t from Mozambique.

The Argus assessment for premium hard low-volatile coking coal averaged $199.14/t fob Australia in September, up from the August average of $185.37/t.

Japanese metallurgical coke imports in September fell by 9.6pc from the previous month to 183,246t, nearly all of which was supplied by China.