• 3 minutes e-car sales collapse
  • 6 minutes America Is Exceptional in Its Political Divide
  • 11 minutes Perovskites, a ‘dirt cheap’ alternative to silicon, just got a lot more efficient
  • 4 hours GREEN NEW DEAL = BLIZZARD OF LIES
  • 7 days If hydrogen is the answer, you're asking the wrong question
  • 22 hours How Far Have We Really Gotten With Alternative Energy
  • 11 days Biden's $2 trillion Plan for Insfrastructure and Jobs
Self-Heating Concrete Paves the Way for Easier Winters

Self-Heating Concrete Paves the Way for Easier Winters

Drexel University researchers successfully tested…

New Chinese Coal Import Tax Spells Disaster For Australian Miners

China Coal Mine

China’s bombshell decision to impose tariffs on coal imports could prove to be the tipping point for Australian miners already struggling to stay afloat.

The move by the economic powerhouse to introduce the new duty of between 3% and 6% beginning Wednesday shocked and angered Aussie producers, responsible for a quarter of Chinese coal imports.

The Minerals Council of Australia's Brendan Pearson said the decision was a poor one.

"The MCA urges the Australian government to initiate urgent discussions with Chinese counterparts to seek the reversal of the decision," he said in a statement.

Related: This Brand New Coal-Producing Nation to Start 2015

He said applying tariffs would ultimately prove "counterproductive" for the struggling Chinese economy anyway because it would "raise energy costs for China's industrial sector and households.”

The move comes barely a week after Beijing announced a major overhaul of its current resource tax, adding that the new and simpler levy would be effective Dec. 1.

This week's sudden announcement represents a second major blow for countries exporting coal to China, after last month Beijing imposed a ban on selling or transporting low-grade or “dirty” coal, putting further pressure on the global coal market.

Related: China's Imports of This Metal Are Up 72%... So Far

Alarm over that policy – announced last month – faded after Beijing appeared to exempt power plants, the largest consumers of fossil fuel.

China's dependence on coal is well known. Annual consumption exceeded 1 billion short tons per year in 1988 and has exploded since then, to about 4 billion tons last year. This means the Asian giant gets about 70% of its energy from the fossil fuel, a number the government hopes to reduce to 65% by 2017.

ADVERTISEMENT

In the past three years Australia’s coal industry has experienced challenging times with prices for thermal coal, which is consumed by power stations to generate electricity, dropping over 40%. More than 10,000 coal jobs have been lost in Australia since 2011 as companies slash costs and idle mines amid a global supply glut.

Australian Coal Prices
Sources: IndexMundi | World Bank

By Cecilia Jamasmie

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:



Join the discussion | Back to homepage



Leave a comment

Leave a comment

EXXON Mobil -0.35
Open57.81 Trading Vol.6.96M Previous Vol.241.7B
BUY 57.15
Sell 57.00
Oilprice - The No. 1 Source for Oil & Energy News