Posted on 18 Mar 2021
A new COVID-19 case identified on March 15 as a Mongolian worker for a copper mine located close to Ganqimaodu, the largest Sino-Mongolia coal trading port in North China’s Inner Mongolia, may trigger tougher measures at the border checkpoint to control any re-emergence of the pandemic, according to sources. As a result, this may slow Mongolian coal exports to China.
As Mongolian authorities rush to begin contact tracing for this latest case, a survey conducted by Mysteel into the likely impact has found that Mongolian coal transportation via Ganqimaodu may decline to about 200 trucks/day from March 16. When cross-border transportation might return to normal levels is unclear.
On March 15, some 567 trucks laden with Mongolian coal crossed the Ganqimaodu checkpoint, according to Mysteel’s survey, a level of truck traffic still lower than the pre-pandemic average of over 1,000 trucks/day.
The copper mine worker’s case was among the most recent after several days of sharply rising infection rates inside Mongolia. During the 24 hours to 11:00 am on March 13 local time, a total of 169 new cases were confirmed, refreshing the country’s new daily record. Over the subsequent two days, the rate of new cases exceeded 100 per day, according to Mongolia’s health authority.
Prices of Mongolian coking coal in China, however, were yet to be affected by the latest pandemic situation as of 5 pm Beijing time Tuesday. As of March 16, Mysteel’s price assessment for Mongolian hard coking coal with 10% ash, 27% volatile and 0.65% sulphur had declined Yuan 50/tonne ($7.7/t) on week to Yuan 1,300/t including the 13% VAT, a low since January 4. The drop was mainly in response to China’s bearish coke market, Mysteel Global noted.
Mongolian coal deliveries to China via border checkpoints including Ganqimaodu have been reduced substantially since early last year, due to stringent measures at Sino-Mongolia border points to control the spread of the coronavirus. During 2020, Mongolia’s coal exports slumped 22% on year to 28.6 million tonnes for all applications, a result which missed the country’s target to lift annual exports to above 40 million tonnes, as reported.
As of 5:00 pm March 15 local time, the sandstorm and snowstorm in Mongolia had killed ten in the country, with other 11 remaining missing, according to a report by Xinhua News Agency. Although the sandstorm hit Ganqimaodu since March 14, operation of border checkpoint remains in operation, Mysteel Global understood.
Source:Mysteel Global
