Coal has no tie to Beijing tension

PRIME Minister Scott Morrison has warned against linking processing delays of coal exports to China with diplomatic tensions, as Australia seeks answers about the slowdown.

Coal export unloading times have almost doubled to 40 days, but the Federal Government has dismissed suggestions a ban has been in place at the northern port of Dalian.

Mr Morrison urged caution around how the delays were characterised, after speculation a possible ban was retaliation for Chinese telecommunications company Huawei being banned from the 5G mobile rollout.

“I think the great risk of that is it will cause needless anxiety and concern, particularly in our mining and resources sector,” he said yesterday.

He said leaping to conclusions was unhelpful and unwarranted.

“From time to time there have been decisions made in local ports,” Mr Morrison said.

“We’re talking about ports here which actually represent a very small portion of our coal exports to China.”

Trade Minister Simon Birmingham confirmed he was seeking an explanation why processing times had blown out from about 25 to 40 days at some ports.

“There remains some issues around the timeliness of processing through ports and we’re eager to understand any reasons for some of those delays,” he said.

Senator Birmingham said a similar situation occurred in the final quarter of last year.

“At the end of that quarter, when we reconciled all of the figures, Australian exports were at record levels both by volume and by value,” he said.

In 2018, Australia exported 89 million tonnes of coal to China, worth $15 billion, just shy of a quarter of the country’s total coal exports.

Australia’s ties with China have been rocky at times since 2017, when Canberra accused China of meddling in its domestic affairs. Tensions rose again last month after Australia rescinded the visa of a prominent Chinese businessman, just months after the Huawei ban.