Mongolian metallurgical coal shipments to China through the Gantsmod land port declined in the week to  12 November amid winter weighing on coal deliveries, but overall year-to-date shipments remained sharply higher on the year.

Daily coal haulage via the Gantsmod port reached 951 trucks, down 9.7 percent on the week, China-based consultancy Haitong International Securities said in a latest note. But despite this, the number of trucks carrying coal through Gantsmod during the January-November period reached 228,600, more than double year on year.

Back in 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic lowered coal truck hauls from Mongolia through the Gantsmod port. But since then, Mongolia has emerged as the largest met coal supplier to China, overtaking China’s traditionally large supplier Australia. In the near term, met coal shipments from Mongolia to China are expected to decline due to the winter season, as lower temperatures have been impacting loading and unloading, sources said.

The number of Mongolian trucks carrying coal to China may not breach the 1,000 mark in the near term, analysts at Haitong said.