China imports more coal from North Korea

China unexpectedly boosted imports of coal from North Korea in December, even after Beijing slapped a temporary ban on shipments from its northern neighbour ahead of fresh UN sanctions that came into effect at the start of this month.
Imports jumped to 2 million tonnes, up 13 percent from the same month a year earlier, and up from 1.91 million tonnes in November, data from China's General Administration of Customs showed on Monday. That was the second highest monthly total in 2016 after April.
For the whole year, China imported 22.5 million tonnes of coal from North Korea, up 14.5 percent from 2015.
Last month, China's Commerce Ministry formally prohibited imports as part of a UN Security Council resolution meant to deter Pyongyang from pursuing its nuclear weapons programme.
China said the ban would be in effect until the end of 2016, though coal shipped before December 11 that had yet arrive at Chinese customs would be exempt. From January 1, the UN has set an annual sales cap of $400.9 million or 7.5 million tonnes, whichever is lower, on the isolated country's biggest export.
"The surge in imports reflected loosening restrictions on North Korean coal cargoes into some of China's major coal ports," said Liu Shuxin, an analyst at China Sublime Information Group, who specialises in the North Korean coal market.
He expects imports will increase further in January after seeing a rise in cargoes arriving in the major coal port of Rizhao, although demand from steel mills has not risen.
North Korea mainly exports anthracite coal, a high-quality product used by China's steel industry.
Meanwhile coal imports from Australia in December rose 17.3 percent from a year earlier to 6.76 million tonnes, while Indonesia supply surged 50 percent to 4.63 million tonnes, the customs data showed.