China and Australia already have bitter terms from the last few months. Australia is reviewing many media reports that claim that China has ended taking its coal shipments. It was stated by Australia’s trade minister on Tuesday as he played down a potential symbol of increasing trade tension between the two nations. Addressing a breakfast television, Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said the government was seeking a response from China while noting that coal flows to the country had been interrupted in recent years partly due to Chinese “domestic factors”.

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Diplomatic relations turned bitter in 2018 when Australia banned China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd from participating in its nascent fifth-generation (5G) broadband network. Australia’s call for an independent inquiry into the origins of the novel coronavirus which first emerged in China further irritated the government in Beijing. On Oct. 8, trade publication IHS Markit reported that authorities at ports in Bayuquan and Jingtang in northern China and Fangcheng in the south had told buyers that Australian cargo would be rejected from discharge and clearing, effective Oct. 1. 

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China is the biggest merchant of Australian coal, taking 27% of its metallurgical coal in the year to June and 20% of its thermal coal. Coal was Australia’s second-largest export last year, behind iron ore, worth A$55 billion ($39.52 billion). China was already expected to tighten coal import rules in the second half of 2020 to support its domestic industry, traders and analysts told Reuters in May, after record arrivals in the first four months of the year met tanking demand brought about by the coronavirus outbreak.

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