China decreased Australia’s November metallurgical coal exports because Beijing's import restrictions have pushed down shipments to China. The informal Chinese ban on imports of Australian coal will probably result in very low exports of coking coal to China in December 2020.

China only took 510,000 tons of hard coking coal, and no semi-soft and PCI grade coal in November 2020, making combined shipments to China reach the lowest since May 2011.

December coking coal shipments may increase from November as demand from other countries kept increasing. India was a main buyer of Australian semi-soft and PCI coal in November, and the country was also the biggest purchaser of hard coking coal during the period.