Russian coking coal flows to Shanxi as safety crackdown hits local supply

Russian coking coal is being railed from east-coast Chinese ports westward to Shanxi province, China's traditional coking coal heartland, in an unusual "reverse" flow that underscores how severely the provincial government's mining safety crackdown has disrupted local supply, Mysteel Global has learned.

Rather than selling to Chinese steel mills nearby, some traders handing imported Russian coking coal at Caofeidian port in Hebei province have reportedly sold their coal to washeries around Xiaoyi and Jiexiu in Shanxi, railing it in the opposite direction from the traditional flow of Shanxi coal moving east