China imported 189 million tonnes of coal in the first five months of 2025, down 7.9% from the same period last year,
Source: China Coal News
China imported 189 million tonnes of coal in the first five months of 2025, down 7.9% from the same period last year, according to data from the General Administration of Customs. The decline reflects weakening demand for imported coal amid shrinking price advantages and shifting procurement strategies. In March, imports fell to 38.73 million tonnes, a 6.4% year-on-year drop that broke a 26-month streak of consecutive growth. From March through May, the pace of decline accelerated, with imports in May slipping to 36.04 million tonnes—down 17.7%, or 7.78 million tonnes, from a year earlier.
The sharpest reductions came from Indonesian coal. From January to April, total coal imports fell by 8.48 million tonnes, with Indonesian shipments accounting for 85.5% of the drop.
Multiple factors are driving the downturn. Power plants and traders have scaled back long-term contract volumes. Meanwhile, price inversion—where imported coal becomes more expensive than domestic supply—has eroded purchasing incentives. At the same time, falling prices for both domestic and overseas coal have squeezed out imports from non-mainstream suppliers, including countries other than Indonesia, Australia, Russia, and Mongolia.
Following the Lunar New Year, domestic coal prices declined sharply, erasing the cost advantage that imported coal had long held. Coastal power plants became less inclined to purchase imports, especially low-calorific-value (low-CV) Indonesian coal, where the price inversion was most pronounced.
The shift was partly triggered by Indonesia’s reaffirmation of its coal export pricing authority, mandating prices be based on the HBA benchmark (Indonesia's thermal coal reference price). While the Indonesian Coal Index (ICI) remained relatively firm, procurement costs for Chinese importers stayed high. As a result, low-CV Indonesian coal quickly lost its competitiveness, trading RMB 20–30 per tonne higher than equivalent domestic grades between March and May. Some power plants cut back on import tenders and turned to domestic alternatives.
Elsewhere, high shipping costs and long transit distances led to a sharp decline in imports from South Africa and Colombia. From January to April, coal imports from non-mainstream suppliers fell by 3.06 million tonnes year-on-year, with Colombian shipments down 2.35 million tonnes.
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