China's coal imports surge 34% in 2007  

(MENAFN) An official statement issued in China, the world's biggest user and producer of coal, said that the nation has increased purchases of the fuel from overseas by 34 percent last year as its economy expanded, Bloomberg reported.

Imports rose to 51 million metric tons last year from 38.24 million tons in 2006, the Beijing-based Customs General Administration of China said. China ended 2007 a net exporter of 2.2 million tons of coal after shipping 53.2 million tons abroad.

China imported 4.3 million tons in December compared with 4.41 million tons in the same month a year earlier, it said.

China, the fastest-growing major economy, became a net importer of coal for the first time in January last year, cutting shipments to Asian customers and worsening a shortage of the fuel in the region. Consumption, spurred by global economic growth, has outpaced gains in output from Australia and Indonesia.