MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Beijing boasts Chinese companies purchase Russian coal and oil paying with Yuans

The first ESPO (Eastern Siberia Pacific Ocean) crude oil will be delivered this month, according to a commentary published in early April on Cngold.org

Several Chinese companies purchased Russian coal paying in Chinese currency in March, and the first shipment would be made in April, according to Fenwei Energy Information Service Co., China’s leading information and service provider to the coal and coke industries. This is also the first shipment of Russian commodities paid in Yuan to arrive in China after Russia was sanctioned by Western countries.

Fenwei did not specify on which date the shipment was expected to arrive.

In addition to coal, Chinese buyers also used Yuan to purchase Russian crude oil. The first ESPO (Eastern Siberia Pacific Ocean) crude oil will be delivered this month, according to a commentary published in early April on Cngold.org, a Chinese online media outlet about investing.

Citing the purchases from Fenwei, the article stated that payments in U.S. dollars will become less popular.

“Russia announced that it would only accept payments in rubles for Russian oil and natural gas, which turned the United States and European countries from those who impose sanctions to those who are subjected to sanctions,” the commentary said.

“Chinese Yuan seized the opportunity and began to reveal its potential in global trade payments. Now that coal and oil paid for in Yuan will arrive in China, the international community [will] become green-eyed [at our success].”

However on April 23, Albert Song, a researcher at Tianjun, a politics and economics think tank, told The Epoch Times that the recent Chinese purchases of Russian commodities in Yuan will not affect the international status of the U.S. dollar, “because these are only bilateral trades between China and Russia, not multilateral trades involving other countries. ”

Song has 27 years of professional experience in China’s financial industry, focusing on research in China’s politics and economics.

According to data released by China’s General Administration of Customs in mid-April, the quantity of imported coal and lignite to China dropped 39.9% year-on-year in March and 24.2% year-on-year in the first quarter. However, Russian imports not only retained the top spot in China’s coking coal imports in March, the quantity more than doubled year on year.

China’s total imports from Russia are also growing significantly. The latest mid-April report from the General Administration of Customs showed that in the first quarter of 2022, its total imports from Russia increased to US$ 21.73 billion, a jump of 31% year-on-year, ranking second only to Indonesia’s 31.4%.

When touting the growing influence of the Chinese currency, the article on Cngold.org also revealed that the Chinese regime is currently negotiating with Saudi Arabia, planning to use the renminbi to price crude oil, in part.

Song disagrees with the commentary’s conclusion that the Chinese Yuan is an emerging star on the international market.