China's coal imports from Australia fall in Feb from Jan

BEIJING: Australia held firm as China's top coal supplier in February, customs data showed on Friday, despite a fall in shipments from the previous month due to waning industrial demand during a week-long national holiday.

Arrivals of Australian coal fell to 5.74 million tonnes last month from 7.94 million tonnes in January, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.

Imports were the lowest since November 2017, at the start of northern China's winter heating season, but were up 11.4 percent from 5.16 million tonnes in February last year.

Indonesia remained China's No.2 coal supplier. Imports reached 3.72 million tonnes in February, down from 5.04 million tonnes in January, but were double the level of a year ago.

Imports from Mongolia continued to fall in January with bottlenecks at the boarder with its No.1 trade partner China. Shipments from Mongolia plunged to 1.26 million tonnes from 1.85 million tonnes in January.

Shipments from Russia also fell last month, dipping to 1.79 million tonnes from January's 2.53 million tonnes.