(Bloomberg) -- China bought a record amount of coal from neighboring Mongolia last month as steel mills looked to cover a shortfall of the fuel after a spate of fatal mining accidents.

Deliveries in November hit 7.9 million tons, more than double the figure of a year earlier, according to customs data, which helped lift China’s total imports for the month to record levels. About three-quarters of the Mongolian shipments were high-quality coking coal for steelmaking after Chinese production was affected by mine shutdowns and safety inspections.

Mongolia also climbed above Russia to rank as China’s second-biggest supplier for the month after Indonesia, which mostly supplies lower grade heating fuel. A recent export tax imposed by Moscow has made Russian coal less competitive. Meanwhile, coal shipments from Australia, China’s other big supplier, haven’t fully recovered from the ban imposed by Beijing from late 2020 to early this year. 

Aussie coking coal in particular has struggled as China has sought to boost domestic output of the higher grade fuel, as well as increase imports from Russia and Mongolia, according to a note from Commonwealth Bank of Australia last month.

November’s surge means that Mongolia has already hit its export target of 50 million tons for the year as a whole, thanks to railway extensions that have eased transport bottlenecks. However, freezing weather, heavy snowfall and fuel shortages are now hitting both coal mining and transportation in the country, according to a note from Fengkuang Coal Logistics, suggesting a much lower total from Mongolia this month.

The Week’s Diary

(All times Beijing unless noted.)

Thursday, Dec. 21:

  • Nothing major scheduled

Friday, Dec. 22:

  • China weekly iron ore port stockpiles
  • Shanghai exchange weekly commodities inventory, ~15:30

On the Wire

They call themselves “garbage collectors,” but the used batteries that Li and his team in southern China gather and sell are in reality immensely valuable — and difficult to come by.

The amount of bank financing going to mining coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel of them all, remains at surprisingly high levels. Most of it is coming from China.

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