China's July thermal coal imports, including lignite, jumped 20% from 20.44 million mt a year ago to 24.42 million mt,

China has announced a 5% tariff on imported US crude oil in retaliation for US President Donald Trump’s recent escalation of the countries’ trade war.

Though the share of coal in the China’s total energy mix fell to 59% last year from 68.5% in 2012, overall consumption in 2018 rose 3% from a year earlier to 3.82 billion tonnes,

Chinese financial institutions provided at least $1 billion in “green” financing to coal-related projects in the first half of this year, a review of financial data showed, with fossil fuels still playing a major role in Beijing’s energy strategy.

The Chinese economy is facing external headwinds and an uncertain environment. GDP growth slowed to 6.6 percent in 2018, driven by necessary financial regulatory reforms and softening external demand. Growth is projected to moderate to 6.2 percent in 2019 as the planned policy stimulus partially offsets the negative impact from the US tariff hike on US$ 200 billion of Chinese exports. Headline inflation rose due to rising food prices and is expected to remain around 2½ percent.