SHANGHAI — China has ended its export quota on coking coal following the removal of the country’s export tax on the material in mid-December.

Effective this month, coke exports are no longer restricted by quota but are administrated by export licenses, according to the Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Customs.

"It is very easy to apply for the export license, as one just has to register at Customs," a source at a trading company in Dalian told AMM sister publication Steel First. "Now that the restrictions on exports are completely removed, we are looking at possible opportunities to export coke."

The export quota became meaningless when China started to levy a 40-percent export tax on coke in late 2008 as China’s coke exports after that were much lower than the quota. But last month, China quietly removed coke from its table of export taxes for 2013 (amm.com, Dec. 17), a move believed to be a response to World Trade Organization rulings against Beijing over alleged restrictions on the export of raw materials.

The export quota for 2012 was 8.48 million tonnes, but exports in the first 11 months amounted to only 960,000 tonnes, indicating an annual total of about 1.05 million tonnes.

A version of this article was first published by AMM sister publication Steel First.