Although the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the entire world, the country that has taken the biggest hit in China. China is the country where the coronavirus is reported to have emerged from in the first place from Wuhan city. Ever since the coronavirus outbreak, almost the entire China went under a huge lockdown.
As a result of the outbreak, almost all countries from around the globe stopped doing trades or accepting flights from the country. This has left the entire country in a very bad economic condition. Now that the coronavirus situation is under control and the majority of the Chinese cities are now open, things are still in a bad shape for the Chinese economy.
Even now, there are countries that are a bit hesitant in doing trades with China due to the doubts surrounding coronavirus. It has been stated by the Chinese Government and analysts that it will take China several months before the country manages to regain its pre-pandemic economic position.
As per recent reports, it has been revealed that numerous cities in China reported having gone dark due to power outages. The sources suggest that the decision has been made by the Chinese authorities. The Chinese authorities have stated that they had to limit power usage due to the shortage of coal for power generation.
It has been revealed by economists and analysts that the prices of coal have surged since the shortage of coal in the country. It has been speculated that the issue might have arisen due to the current tension that has been building up between Canberra and Beijing.
Many analysts are speculating that the shortage of coal might be the outcome of China putting a ban on coal coming from Australia.
Although both the countries were on very friendly terms with each other back in 2019, the problem emerged back in 2020. The tension started building up between the two countries when Australia supported the decision of conducting an international. The international inquiry pertained to the Country’s course of action and precautions n handling the coronavirus pandemic.
Since then, the Chinese Government has been showing a cold attitude to Australia. Ever since the international inquiry announcement, China has started targeting several products that were imported from Australia and coal is just one of them.
In the middle of 2020, the Chinese administration order the power plants to limit the amount of coal being imported from other countries. The Chinese authorities specifically instructed the power plants to lower the number of imports being made from Australia. The country made this decision because coal prices had started surging in recent years.
As of now, the prices of coal in the Chinese commodity trading sector are all-time high and this is the very reason why the companies would be having a hard time acquiring coal.