The United States has always done everything possible to contain China. Winning allies to build an anti-China encirclement is the most convenient method for the White House , and Australia is one of them. Because Australia is willing to serve as the pawn of the United States in anti-China and has repeatedly provoked China, China-Australia relations have deteriorated sharply. Against this background, the trade between China and Australia has also been greatly affected, and coal import and export trade is the best example.
According to a report from Observer Network on July 1, US Consumer News and Business Channel (CNBC) stated in its column that China will stop further imports of Australian coal in 2020, and in 2021 due to serious crises in some areas Due to power rationing, some thermal power stations purchased some Australian coal that was stranded in China due to the epidemic and used it to generate electricity. Nowadays, this part of coal has been used up, and China no longer purchases coal from Australia. It can be said that China has cleared out all Australian coal inventories. The media analyzed that the possibility of China purchasing coal from Australia in the future is very small.
CNBC said that first of all, this is because China has found a new seller to replace Australian coal. Indonesia, , Russia and Mongolia are all major coal-producing countries, which are sufficient to replace Australian coal, and the coal prices in these countries are low. Secondly, China is increasing its coal mining efforts. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics show that from January to May 2022, China's coal mining volume increased by 10.4% year-on-year, while the amount of imported coal dropped by nearly 13.6%. In addition, CNBC also believes that the new crown epidemic has caused China’s current infrastructure demand to slow down, which has objectively led to a decrease in demand for coal. China's two industries with the largest demand for coal are steel and power generation, both of which currently have no shortage of coal.
Based on the above three reasons, CNBC believes that China is unlikely to import coal from Australia in the future unless there is a huge price discount. Tiping, chairman of the Australian Export Council, said that if there is "market push", Australia will still restart coal trading at a "suitable price".
The energy security of a major country cannot only be in the hands of other countries. China has always paid great attention to its own energy security. Even when there are no market fluctuations, it is taking precautions and actively exploring other sellers. When the Russia-Ukraine war led to a tight supply of U.S. crude oil imports and rising global oil prices, China actually had a large and stable supply of Russian crude oil, and the same was true in the coal field. Australia dares to get stuck in China's neck by relying on the few resources it exports, which is quite ridiculous and overestimating.
It is foreseeable that this trade situation between China and Australia will continue for some time. China has nothing to ask of Australia, and Australia will not make any substantial changes because it relies on the support of the United States. Morrison Although he stepped down, his successor Albanese still continued the policies of his predecessor. However, as a person knows when he drinks water, since Australia spread inappropriate China-related remarks in 2020, the trade volume between China and Australia, which originally exceeded 60 billion yuan, has dropped sharply. It is no exaggeration to describe it as falling to the bottom. It is true that there is no need to worry about selling Australian coal. As long as the price is reduced, there will always be people to buy it. But where else can Australia find buyers with strong demand like China?
This is a warning for some countries. In the past period of time, the actual actions of some countries, especially Asian countries, have demonstrated the concept that economics depends on China and politics depends on the United States. In the context of the United States sparing no effort to target China, these countries often echo the United States in an attempt to gain "face" and "lion". Australia is the best example. Facts have proved that China will no longer accept this idea of living here and there, as the Chinese representative said at the Sino-US high-level dialogue: The Chinese do not accept this!
