澳洲礦商呼籲中國叫停煤炭檢測制度

Australian miners are calling on Beijing to suspend a new coal-quality testing regime, which they claim is unfairly blocking cargoes at Chinese ports and increasing costs for exporters at a time when the seaborne coal trade is under severe stress.

澳大利亞礦業公司呼籲中國政府暫停實施一項新的煤炭品質檢測制度，它們稱，在海運煤炭貿易承受巨大壓力之際，這項政策不公平地讓貨物在中國港口受阻，增加了出口商的成本。

The environmental tests are part of Beijing’s “war on pollution”, and when combined with a trend towards increasing use of domestically produced coal, are leading to a dramatic decline in coal imports by China, the world’s biggest consumer of thermal coal.

這些環保檢測是中國政府“向污染宣戰”的一部分，再加上國產煤炭使用量上升的趨勢，正導致中國煤炭進口大幅下降。中國是全球最大的熱煤消費國。

In the five months to the end of May, Chinese coal imports fell 38 per cent to 83.2m tonnes against the same period in 2014. “The main problems relate to the variability in the testing regime, inadequate allowance for commercial remedies and the delays it is subjecting shipping to. There is no doubt each of these factors adds to cost and increases risk,” says Greg Evans, director of coal at the Minerals Council of Australia. “We would be concerned if the measures did not apply to local producers, as this may be contrary to established trade rules.”

在截止今年5月底的5個月裏，中國煤炭進口同比下降38%，至8320萬噸。澳大利亞礦業協會(Minerals Council of Australia)煤炭主管格雷格•埃文斯(Greg Evans)表示：“主要問題與檢測制度反覆無常、沒有爲商業補救留出足夠餘地以及由此造成的運輸延誤有關。毫無疑問這些因素全都增加了成本並讓風險上升。如果這些檢測標準沒有應用於國內生產商，我們將會感到擔憂，因爲這可能違反了現行貿易規則。”

Canberra has made representations to Beijing about the tests, which ban the burning of coal with ash content of more than 16 per cent or sulphur content of more than 1 per cent in populous eastern cities.

澳大利亞政府已經就檢測措施向北京方面提出了交涉，後者禁止在人口密集的華東城市燃燒任何煤灰含量超過16%或者含硫量超過1%的煤炭。

Miners invested heavily in thermal coal production over the past decade to meet China’s seemingly insatiable demand for energy. But as Chinese growth cools and Beijing cracks down on pollution and carbon dioxide emissions, the global industry faces a supply glut, which has caused prices to halve from their peak in 2011. Coal is Australia’s second-biggest export, worth about A$37bn in 2014-15. Other big coal exporters, including Indonesia, South Africa and Canada are also being affected by the Chinese testing regime, which was introduced in January.

礦業公司在過去十年裏大舉投資於熱煤生產，以滿足中國似乎永遠無法滿足的能源需求。但隨着中國經濟增長降溫以及治理污染和二氧化碳排放問題，全球煤炭行業面臨供應過剩的局面，導致煤價從2011年的最高點下跌一半。煤炭是澳大利亞的第二大出口產品，在2014-15財年價值約370億澳元。包括印尼、南非和加拿大在內的其他煤炭出口大國也受到中國今年1月出臺的檢測新政的影響。

Daniel Morgan, analyst at UBS, said the coal-quality tests were part of a wider shift towards protectionist measures in China, which has also recently introduced import tariffs.

瑞銀(UBS)分析師丹尼爾•摩根(Daniel Morgan)表示，煤炭品質檢測是中國更全面轉向保護主義措施的一部分，中國最近還推出了煤炭進口關稅。

Additional reporting by Owen Guo in ­Beijing and James Crabtree in Mumbai

郭晨(Owen Guo)北京、詹姆斯•克拉布特裏(James Crabtree)孟買補充報道