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After a lapse of 11 months, China's total coal imports fell again to less than 40 million tons in February 2025, the lowest monthly level since March 2024.Last year, China's average monthly coal imports reached 45.23 million tons.

Judging from the previous import situation, coal imports in February of each year are basically in a trough state. The reason for this cyclical low phenomenon may be due to factors such as seasonal demand off-season, the effect of the Spring Festival, and the small number of natural days.Compared with the level of the same period over the years, imports in February this year were still in the highest position.

The latest data released by the General Administration of Customs show that China's coal imports reached 34.357 million tons in February, a decrease of 7.4 million tons sequentially, a decrease of 17.7%; a year-on-year increase of 610,000 tons, an increase of 1.8%.

In February, China's coal imports were US22.82 billion, down 19.9% year-on-year and down 23.0% sequentially.Based on this, it is estimated that the average import price is US882.2/ton, down US222.3/ton year-on-year, and down US55.7/ton sequentially.

In terms of coal types, China imported 25.511 million tons of thermal coal (non-coking coal) in February, down 1.4% year-on-year and 19.7% sequentially.Among them, 60% of thermal coal imports came from Indonesia, and the share was flat sequentially; followed by Australian coal, accounting for 15%, narrowing by 5 percentage points sequentially.

In February, China imported 8.846 million tons of coking coal, an increase of 12.4% year-on-year and a decrease of 11.5% sequentially.Among them, coking coal imports from Mongolia are still the largest, accounting for 36%; followed by Russia, accounting for 29%.

By country, the top five source countries for China's coal imports in February were Indonesia, Russia, Mongolia, Australia and the United States.In that month, China imported a total of 32.407 million tons of coal from the above-mentioned five countries, accounting for 94% of all China's coal imports.

Specifically, Indonesia remained China's largest coal supplier in February, accounting for 44%.During the month, China imported 15.273 million tons of coal from Indonesia, down 8.4% year-on-year and 21.1% sequentially.

During the month, China imported 6.343 million tons of coal from Russia, an increase of 17.9% year-on-year and an increase of 0.6% sequentially; accounting for 18%.5.148 million tons of coal were imported from Mongolia, an increase of 13.7% year-on-year and a decrease of 7.0% sequentially; accounting for 15%.

Australia is the fourth largest source country, accounting for 13%.In February, China imported 4.376 million tons of coal from Australia, down 12.7% year-on-year and 43.0% sequentially.

In addition, in February, China imported 1.267 million tons of coal from the United States, an increase of 34.6% year-on-year and a decrease of 6.7% sequentially; accounting for 4%.

From January to February this year, China imported a total of 76.119 million tons of coal, an increase of 2.2% from 74.515 million tons in the same period last year. Under the cost-effective advantage of imported coal, imports continued to increase year-on-year.From the perspective of the main source countries, only Indonesia's coal imports have declined, while other import sources have shown varying degrees of growth.