"China ramps up Australian coal imports as economy rebounds"

" China ramps up Australian coal imports as economy rebounds \r\n\r\nChina\u2019s economy is slowly recovering after the country finally ended its austere Zero Covid Policy late last year. The recovery of the world\u2019s second largest economy has been gradual. China was hit hard by a wave of Covid-19 cases as soon as strict national lockdown measures were eased. But now, the pace of the country\u2019s rebound is picking up, with major implications for the global economy as a whole.\r\n\r\nMore specifically, China\u2019s re-opening is going to add a massive amount of demand for a wide array of commodities, and especially for energy imports. \"The impact of China's reopening would be largely on the demand side, which would contribute to a higher global inflation rate,\" according to Yating Xu, principal economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence. According to economists\u2019 projections, China\u2019s resurging demands will \u201clikely add up to a half percentage point to inflation in most economies\u201d over the course of 2023.\r\n\r\nAccording to reporting from S&P Global, \u201cunlike prior slowdowns, when China provided an economic stimulus felt around the globe, the new economic push offers little support to economies ailing from weak growth and supply chain stress.\u201d But that\u2019s not true across the board. China\u2019s reopening has been concurrent with a major thaw in diplomatic relations between Beijing and Australia, and, relatedly, a massive uptick in imports of Australian coal to China.\r\n\r\nJust last month, China imported US$23.7 million worth of coking coal (72,982 tonnes) and US$18.2 million worth of thermal coal (134,254 tonnes) from Australia, according to official data from the General Administration of Customs. This is a significant turnaround from the past few years. Since 2020, China has upheld an unofficial ban on Australian coal due to a lengthy saga of rising political tensions and failed diplomatic relations between China and Australia.\r\n\r\nThe 207,236 tonnes of Australian thermal and coking coal bought by China last month is reportedly just the beginning of this renewed trade relationship. At a press conference earlier this month, Shu Jueting, spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce, said that importers can now apply for a coal import license \u201cnormally\u201d. A Shanxi-based coal information provider told the South China Morning Post that \u201ca lot of vessels over two megatonnes\u201d departed Australia in February are set to arrive in China this month.\r\n\r\nChina\u2019s renewed interest in Australian coal is part of a much broader push from Beijing to shore up national energy security. And in China, energy security is synonymous with coal. In January and February of this year, China\u2019s coal imports increased by a whopping 71% compared to 2022. Additionally, Beijing greenlit 106 gigawatts of new coal-fired energy capacity \u2013 the equivalent of 100 large-fired power plants \u2013 last year. This marks a fourfold increase from 2021.\r\n\r\nBeijing\u2019s energy security has faced extreme stress in recent years due to the Covid-19 pandemic and severe drought which devastated the country\u2019s massive hydropower sector. As a result, China is investing in energy in any and every market and sector that it can. While coal-fired power is having a renaissance in China, Beijing is also spending record levels of cash on renewables. As a result, China is at once the undisputed leader of the clean energy revolution and the world\u2019s largest burner of coal. It\u2019s also the world\u2019s biggest emitter of greenhouse gasses, despite all of its green energy gains.\r\n\r\nThis duality is emblematic of a broad struggle taking shape across the globe. Worldwide, we need green energy, and we need it now \u2013 but there is a fundamental lack of trust that renewables can reliably power the economy. This concern is well founded; the scope and scale of the transition necessary to avoid the worst impact of climate change is so unprecedented that hiccups and shocks are as inevitable as they are frightening. Weaning the global economy off of fossil fuels simply can\u2019t happen overnight, but experts say that divesting from coal \u2013 the dirtiest fossil fuel \u2013 can\u2019t wait.\r\n\r\n "

"China ramps up Australian coal imports as economy rebounds"

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