China coal trade too big for Beijing to meddle with … or Australia to get alarmed about

While Australian coal and other key resource exports to China have continued to enjoy strong growth as commodity markets weakened across the world, glitches in the clearance of coal imports through Chinese ports are a recurring issue in managing the trade growth. The Chinese thermal coal market is being shaken by accelerating intervention to manage climate change and the huge pollution problem that authorities are under pressure to solve. Clunky implementation of controls over coal imports around clearing local markets and environmental controls is par for the course. There was a similar episode that didn’t slow record trade volumes last year. It’s an issue that needs to be dealt with — and both countries need to put work into dealing with it — but it’s a trivial issue in the broader picture of Australia–China trade.