China's coal imports continued to see strong year-on-year growth yet slightly retreated from a second high in the preceding month, according to the latest customs data released on May 9.

The country imported a total of 40.68 million tonnes in April, rising 72.73% or 17.13 million tonnes on the year but retreating 1.19% or 489,000 tonnes compared with the previous month, according to the General Administration of Customs (GAC).

Value of the imports totaled $4.99 billion in April, rising 34.83% year on year but down 5.25% month on month. Sxcoal calculated the average import price at $122.72/t, down $34.49/t year on year and $5.27/t month on month.

China imported a total of 1.42 billion tonnes of coal in January-April, up 88.8% on the year. The imports value was $18.55 billion, up 53.9% on the year, the GAC data showed.