BHP: China's coking coal imports sustainable

BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining company, has said that China’s increasing demand for coking coal is sustainable, Bloomberg reported. Despite China’s imports of coking coal rising from 1 million metric tons last year to 30 million this year, Vicky Binns, head of commodity analysis at BHP, said that China’s imports only constitute 7% of the country’s total consumption. “China’s imports of coking coal look sustainable for a small proportion of their total requirements. We see this trend continuing,” she said. China accounted for 49% of crude steel output this year, up from 37% in the past two years, making it the largest producer of steel in the world. Binns said that increased production and better facilities at Chinese mills – including larger furnaces with higher environmental standards – would require higher quality, imported coking coal. Melbourne-based BHP is the largest producer of coking coal through its BHP Mitsubishi Alliance with Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp.