Thailand's thermal coal (bituminous and sub-bituminous coal) imports reached 2.16 million tonnes in August, down 2.86% year on year and 3.79% from the preceding month, , customs data showed.
The figure was the lowest for the same month in past five years at least.
Bituminous coal imports reached 599,900 tonnes in August, falling 32.67% year on year yet up 14.66% month on month. The bulk came from Australia at 423,200 tonnes, up 14.56% from a year earlier; shipments from Indonesia stood at 175,900 tonnes, down 57.23% year on year.
Sub-bituminous coal imports totaled 1.56 million tonnes, up 17.14% year on year yet down 9.41% month on month. Imports from Indonesia reached 1.5 million tonnes, rising 42.7% year on year, and receipts from the Philippines were 55,000 tonnes, while it didn't import any sub-bituminous coal from the country in August 2021.
Anthracite imports were only 350 tonnes, slumping from 24,400 tonnes a year ago and 9,334 tonnes a month ago. Coking coal imports were 275 tonnes in the month, up from 55 tonnes a month earlier.
From January to August, Thailand's thermal coal imports reached 14.32 million tonnes, down 12.29% year on year. Bituminous coal imports reached 4 million tonnes, down 34.77% year on year; sub-bituminous coal imports rose 1.21% to 10.32 million tonnes.
The country's coal consumption amounted to 23.59 million tonnes in January-July, up 5.16% year on year, official data showed. This included 11.81 million tonnes burned for power generation, down 3.9% year on year. Power generation accounted for 50.06% of the country's total coal use.
Hits kept on coming to the tourism-reliant country this year from the COVID-19 epidemic to the global inflation, leading to a slowdown on its economic growth and thereby its power consumption. Thailand's economy is expected to grow 3.1% this year by the World Bank, while the Thai government expected the GDP growth by 3-3.5%.
(Writing by Alex Guo Editing by Tammy Yang)
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