South Africa's coal exports for calendar year 2011 rose by 1.9 percent or 1.2 million tonnes to 64.6 million tonnes from the previous year, with a fourth-quarter surge in shipments going to China, exporters said.
China took just over 13 million tonnes from South Africa last year, much of it in the fourth quarter as Chinese utilities filled stockpiles to capacity before the New Year holidays.
Although India remains the biggest single market for South African coal, accounting for 16.1 million tonnes in 2011, China has risen rapidly to the No. 2 spot.
In 2010 and 2009, Chinese buying of South African cargoes was rare and often at heavily discounted prices, because Australian or Indonesian coal costs less to ship due to their proximity.
“China took over 6 million tonnes in Q4, they bought so much but we can't assume a similar pattern of buying, what they do after their end-January New Year will be a better gauge of the market,” one exporter said.
South African exports in December were typically strong at 7.4 million tonnes, up 1.2 million from the previous month, because the big exporters who own Richards Bay Coal Terminal tend to push through the maximum exports at the close of the year, leaving minimal stockpiles.
In December, India took 1.7 million tonnes, up from 1.3 in the previous month while China took 944,000 tonnes, a fall back from the record 2.8 million in November.
“Indian spot demand is very fickle although they've taken a steady monthly tonnage but there are enquiries and some sales have been made this month to end-users,” another exporter source said. - Reuters