Driven by the Chinese government’s reintroduction of a long dormant 6% import tax on the commodity on October 15, the bank forecasted that China’s thermal coal imports were 10 million tonnes last month.

This is an estimated 38.7% fall from the 16.3Mt imported in the previous month (September) and an estimated 44% fall from October 2013.

It also forecasted Chinese thermal coal imports to be 10Mt in November – a projected 53% fall YOY.

The bank flagged that China’s overall coal consumption might not increase in 2015.