China Says Australia’s Exporters Can Come Again. Some Say No Thanks.

ADELAIDE, Australia—When China reopened its ports to Australian steelmaking coal in January, it quickly ran up in opposition to a legacy of its two-year standoff with one among its greatest buying and selling companions: The ships largely weren’t coming again.

Australian coal exporters needed to domesticate new markets on the fly after being locked out of China when its leaders reacted angrily to former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s name for a world investigation into the origins of Covid-19. Many turned to India, which wants coal to feed its burgeoning metal trade. These ties have held at the same time as Beijing rolled again restrictions.