Shipments of Australian coal that have been stranded in Chinese ports for months have finally been unloaded as China grapples with an energy crisis that has seen coal and gas prices surge to new peaks. A confluence of factors including the approaching winter months, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) moves to reduce carbon emissions, COVID-19 restrictions, and its unofficial ban on Australian coal have combined to create the crisis that has manifested in sweeping blackouts that have affected China’s economic engines, the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Guangdong. The CCP has reportedly scrambled to increase its thermal coal inventory ahead of the winter when demand is expected to increase for heating. “In order to ensure the energy security of coal use in winter, power companies continue to buy more and more coal regardless of costs despite their substantial losses, and inventories continue to increase slowly,” the China Electricity Council said in a …
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