Taiwan's November Coal Imports Fall 10% on Slowdown

By Yu-huay Sun

Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Taiwan, which imports all of its coal, reduced purchases by 10 percent from a year earlier in November as demand from steelmakers and electricity producers dropped.

Shipments fell to 5.35 million metric tons, the Bureau of Energy said in an e-mailed report today. Consumption declined 12 percent to 4.58 million tons, the bureau said.

Coal accounts for about a third of Taiwan's energy supplies. It's also used in steelmaking. Consumption by steel companies dropped because of the global market slowdown, the bureau said.

To contact the reporter on the story: Yu-huay Sun in Taipei ysun7@bloomberg.net