Macquarie Private Wealth said Chinese coking coal imports were down 14% year-on-year in July while they were down more than 12%, or 5 million tonnes, on a year-to-date basis.

“Interestingly, imports from the two largest suppliers, Australia and Mongolia, are up 8% and 24% year-to-date respectively,” MPW said.

“The big falls have come from Canada, the US and Russia, illustrating the difficulty these producers face selling into Asia given weak pricing and a substantial freight disadvantage shipping into Asia.”

MPW has forecast hard coking coal prices to steadily recover from existing prices of around $US120 a tonne to $180/t in 2018.