As the China-U.S. trade war heats up, people with knowledge of the matter said many coal traders have already begun sourcing domestic supplies of metallurgical coal, according to Reuters.
Thomson Reuters Eikon shipping data shows that at least six cargo ships of coal are due to arrive this month, but at least three were still en route or waiting off ports to unload cargo on Wednesday.
Beginning on Thursday, U.S. tariffs on $16 billion worth of Chinese goods goes into effect and in retaliation, China is imposing tariffs on a like amount of U.S. goods, including metals, fuel, and coal.
A senior manager at Shanghai Runhei International, a major domestic coal trading house, said they had cleared the last U.S. shipment of metallurgical coal cargo at Qinhuangdao port earlier this week. He declined to be named because he wasn’t authorized to speak on the matter.
“We have completely stopped U.S. metallurgical coal (imports), which is popular among steel mills, in late July. There is too much uncertainty in trade,” he said.
The coal cargoes arriving in August were mostly booked in May after Beijing threatened to hit coal with heavy tariffs in retaliation to U.S. threats of tariffs on Chinese goods. This move allowed Chinese buyers to scoop up U.S. coal at bargain prices.
Shanghai Runhei plans on increasing purchases of domestic coking coal instead of foreign supplies to meet demand from clients, and it’s a policy that is gaining traction with other trading companies.
Obviously, some Chinese traders have already started using the trade war as a bargaining chip to getting cheaper coal from U.S. coal producers. “Unless U.S. coal producers give us a big bargain, Chinese buyers will not import U.S. coal,” said Huang Zhiqi, a coal trading consultant at Falcon Information.
Trade Talks resume in Washington
An American group headed by David Malpass, under-secretary for international affairs at the Treasury Department will meet with the Chinese delegation, headed by Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen, in Washington this week.
Neither side has provided any details on what will be discussed, according to Bloomberg, but analysts doubt if anything concrete will come of the talks.
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit is being held in the Papua New Guinean capital Port Moresby in November and it could be a stage for President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to meet for the first time this year. At the 2017 APEC meeting in Vietnam, Trump said the U.S. would not allow “cheating” on any trade deals with the U.S.
And if the U.S. and China still haven’t reached a trade deal by the APEC meeting, there is still the G-20 meeting in Argentina from Nov. 30 to Dec. 1. This could be another chance for the two leaders to sit down and talk. The pair met on the sidelines of the G-20 in July last year.
