Japanese coal imports firm in April

摘要

Coal’s current cost advantage over gas for power generation in Japan and relatively stable electricity consumption supported the country’s thermal coal imports last month, while LNG receipts fell to a 10-year low. Japanese imports of thermal coal and lignite rose by 8pc on the year to 9.1mn t last month, according to provisional finance ministry data, while LNG arrivals fell by nearly 9pc to 5.1mn t. Australian coal probably drove the overall increase in Japanese coal receipts, with as much as 6.7mn t imported compared with 5.8mn t a year earlier.