China’s appetite for coal used in steelmaking is faltering, deepening a market downturn miners say is the worst in recent memory. The price of steelmaking coal shipped from Australia, the world’s biggest exporter, has fallen 23% this year to roughly $86 a metric ton, its lowest level in nearly a decade. The slide extends a decline begun in 2011, during which the fuel’s value has slumped by around three-quarters. But analysts caution that prices will recover only if more cuts are made. The consultancy Wood Mackenzie doesn’t expect the oversupply of steelmaking coal, or coking coal, to clear up until about 2022. China, whose breakneck economic growth has been the engine for most global commodity markets, won’t need as much steelmaking coal in future, analysts now project. That leaves miners who rushed to open new pits in the boom years to struggle. Chinese sectors such as heavy industry and […]