China, India shift to higher-grade coal, cut Indonesian imports
By Sudarshan Varadhan and Sam li
Singapore/Beijing (Reuters) -Thermal coal importers reduce Indonesian shipments of China and India Indonesia in favor of fuel that produces fuel in favor of energy intensive notes, as a global decline in prices makes a global decline in prices.
Industrial officials say that China and India’s coal purchases from Indonesia, the world’s largest exporter, are faster than general thermal coal imports because both countries have passed to higher heating value (CV) coal.
“Higher CV coal is more expensive, but produces more energy for each dollar spent at existing prices. One million tons higher CV coal can replace 1.2-1.3 million tons or even 1.5 million tons from Indonesia,” Vasudev Pamnani, the director of Vasudev Pamnani, India-based coal merchant I-Energy Natural Resources. He said.
KPler Analyst Zhiyuan Li said that in China, Indonesia middle and low heating thermal coal is struggling to compete with discounted Russian materials with similar notes.
Ramli Ahmad, Director of the Endonesian miner Ombilin Energine, said that the prices of higher grades may increase due to the Middle East conflict of Indonesian coal, but lower CV coal will suffer as long as more energy-intensive notes are competitive.
Mongolian coal, Chinese Customs and Indian trade data in South African coal in China and India were the biggest gains at the expense of Indonesia, touching record levels in these markets in the first five months of 2025.
MySteel Analyst Xue Dingcui said that despite the thermal coal prices falling in China because Mongolian coal price remains competitive, it will continue to increase Mongolian coal exports.
China and India organized purchases from Tanzania, which was largely destroyed by the global maritime coal commercial map until Russia’s battle in Ukraine in 2022.
Indian traders also increased the purchase of higher -grade coal than Kazhakistan, Colombia and Mozambique this year, while Australian materials won a share in China.
Reflecting the notes preferred by Chinese buyers, Indonesia and Australian coal indices have been lower than October 2023 and the Australian criterion is falling faster than Indonesia.
Looking into it
In general, Chinese coal imports decreased to 137.4 million tons in the first five months of the year, while shipments to India decreased to 74 million tons with more than 5% drop.
Indonesia exports, China and India, have shifted 12.3% and 14.3%, respectively. The data of the Analytical Company KPLER’s data fell by 12% of the total coal exports of the Southeast Asian Nation in January-May.
