Coal inventories at China's four main northern ports continued to increase as demand from downstream buyers weakened due to the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, industry sources said.
Coal stockpiles held at Qinhuangdao Port in Hebei province, China's leading coal-handling port, exceeded what is widely viewed as the warning line of 8 million mt on February 7 when markets returned from the week-long holiday and they posted a gain of 2 million mt within three weeks.
Data showed that coal inventories at Qinhuangdao Port reached 8.09 million mt on February 7, hitting the highest level since February of the previous year.
Inventories have also been rising at the other three major coal ports in northern China. Caofeidian Port and Jingtang Port, both located in Hebei Province, respectively had 6.22 million mt and 5.3 million mt of coal inventories on February 7, while coal stocks at Tianjin Port stood at 2.208 million mt.
The combined coal inventories at the four northern ports amounted to approximately 22 million mt on February 7.
High stockpiles at the ports are expected to continue for an extended period of time until the maintenance work on Daqin railway, which will exert pressure on market prices for thermal coal, a coal industry analyst said.