IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v14y2021i13p3752-d580137.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Coal Pricing in China: Is It a Bit Too Crude?

Author

Listed:
  • Raymond Li

    (Faculty of Business, Government & Law, University of Canberra, Bruce 2617, Australia)

  • David C. Broadstock

    (Energy Studies Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore 119620, Singapore)

Abstract

China is a global leader in methanol production volume, while coal is a major feedstock. The country also has the world’s largest commercial coal-to-methanol operations. Coal-based methanol is used widely within China and is a competitive substitute for gasoline. Owing to this, it is plausible that the price of coal may be linked to international crude oil prices, with methanol prices serving as the connecting channel. We add supporting evidence to a recently emerging area of literature and observe statistically significant relationships among the three prices, and, therefore, the influence from international crude oil and methanol prices on the coal price determination in China. This paper investigates the relationships among these prices for the period from January 2010 to December 2019 through spectral Granger causality analysis, alongside more traditional cointegration tests to develop a comprehensive picture of causal association between the price series in both the frequency and time domain. Cointegration is found in our tri-variate system while the frequency domain Granger causality tests reveal the long-run causality in all directions except from crude oil to methanol, thus, emphasizing the structure of coal price dependence. According to the generalized impulse response functions, the coal price reacts positively to shocks in crude oil prices.

Suggested Citation

  • Raymond Li & David C. Broadstock, 2021. "Coal Pricing in China: Is It a Bit Too Crude?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-13, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:13:p:3752-:d:580137
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/13/3752/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/13/3752/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ahmed, Mumtaz & Azam, Muhammad, 2016. "Causal nexus between energy consumption and economic growth for high, middle and low income countries using frequency domain analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 653-678.
    2. Joëts, Marc & Mignon, Valérie, 2012. "On the link between forward energy prices: A nonlinear panel cointegration approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 1170-1175.
    3. Batten, Jonathan A. & Ciner, Cetin & Lucey, Brian M., 2017. "The dynamic linkages between crude oil and natural gas markets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 155-170.
    4. Kwiatkowski, Denis & Phillips, Peter C. B. & Schmidt, Peter & Shin, Yongcheol, 1992. "Testing the null hypothesis of stationarity against the alternative of a unit root : How sure are we that economic time series have a unit root?," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 54(1-3), pages 159-178.
    5. Hassan Mohammadi, 2011. "Long-run relations and short-run dynamics among coal, natural gas and oil prices," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(2), pages 129-137.
    6. Mohammadi, Hassan, 2009. "Electricity prices and fuel costs: Long-run relations and short-run dynamics," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 503-509, May.
    7. Perron, Pierre & Qu, Zhongjun, 2007. "A simple modification to improve the finite sample properties of Ng and Perron's unit root tests," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 12-19, January.
    8. Narjes Zamani, 2016. "The Relationship between Crude Oil and Coal Markets: A New Approach," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 6(4), pages 801-805.
    9. Ciner, Cetin, 2013. "Oil and stock returns: Frequency domain evidence," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 1-11.
    10. Gonzalo, Jesus & Pitarakis, Jean-Yves, 1998. "Specification via model selection in vector error correction models," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 321-328, September.
    11. Elliott, Graham & Rothenberg, Thomas J & Stock, James H, 1996. "Efficient Tests for an Autoregressive Unit Root," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(4), pages 813-836, July.
    12. Toda, Hiro Y. & Yamamoto, Taku, 1995. "Statistical inference in vector autoregressions with possibly integrated processes," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1-2), pages 225-250.
    13. Johansen, Soren, 1995. "Likelihood-Based Inference in Cointegrated Vector Autoregressive Models," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198774501.
    14. Masih, Rumi & Peters, Sanjay & De Mello, Lurion, 2011. "Oil price volatility and stock price fluctuations in an emerging market: Evidence from South Korea," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 975-986, September.
    15. Jian-Ling Jiao & Ying Fan & Yi-Ming Wei, 2009. "The structural break and elasticity of coal demand in China: empirical findings from 1980-2006," International Journal of Global Energy Issues, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 31(3/4), pages 331-344.
    16. Lance J. Bachmeier & James M. Griffin, 2006. "Testing for Market Integration: Crude Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2), pages 55-72.
    17. Mjelde, James W. & Bessler, David A., 2009. "Market integration among electricity markets and their major fuel source markets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 482-491, May.
    18. Aydin, Mucahit, 2018. "Natural gas consumption and economic growth nexus for top 10 natural Gas–Consuming countries: A granger causality analysis in the frequency domain," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 165(PB), pages 179-186.
    19. Gorus, Muhammed Sehid & Aydin, Mucahit, 2019. "The relationship between energy consumption, economic growth, and CO2 emission in MENA countries: Causality analysis in the frequency domain," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 815-822.
    20. Park, Chuhwan & Chung, Mo & Lee, Sukgyu, 2011. "The effects of oil price on regional economies with different production structures: A case study from Korea using a structural VAR model," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(12), pages 8185-8195.
    21. Pesaran, H. Hashem & Shin, Yongcheol, 1998. "Generalized impulse response analysis in linear multivariate models," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 17-29, January.
    22. Yang, Chi-Jen & Xuan, Xiaowei & Jackson, Robert B., 2012. "China's coal price disturbances: Observations, explanations, and implications for global energy economies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 720-727.
    23. Wei, Yanfeng & Guo, Xiaoying, 2016. "An empirical analysis of the relationship between oil prices and the Chinese macro-economy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 88-100.
    24. Raymond Li & Roselyne Joyeux & Ronald D. Ripple, 2010. "International Steam Coal Market Integration," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3), pages 181-202.
    25. Aznar, Antonio & Salvador, Manuel, 2002. "Selecting The Rank Of The Cointegration Space And The Form Of The Intercept Using An Information Criterion," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(4), pages 926-947, August.
    26. Linda Warell, 2006. "Market Integration in the International Coal Industry: A Cointegration Approach," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1), pages 99-118.
    27. Zhang, Yue-Jun & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2010. "The crude oil market and the gold market: Evidence for cointegration, causality and price discovery," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 168-177, September.
    28. Esmaeili, Abdoulkarim & Shokoohi, Zainab, 2011. "Assessing the effect of oil price on world food prices: Application of principal component analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 1022-1025, February.
    29. Nazlioglu, Saban & Soytas, Ugur, 2012. "Oil price, agricultural commodity prices, and the dollar: A panel cointegration and causality analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 1098-1104.
    30. Lemmens, Aurélie & Croux, Christophe & Dekimpe, Marnik G., 2008. "Measuring and testing Granger causality over the spectrum: An application to European production expectation surveys," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 414-431.
    31. Breitung, Jorg & Candelon, Bertrand, 2006. "Testing for short- and long-run causality: A frequency-domain approach," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 132(2), pages 363-378, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Guo, Yanfeng & Zhao, Huanyu, 2024. "Volatility spillovers between oil and coal prices and its implications for energy portfolio management in China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(PB), pages 446-457.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Filip, Ondrej & Janda, Karel & Kristoufek, Ladislav & Zilberman, David, 2019. "Food versus fuel: An updated and expanded evidence," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 152-166.
    2. Guo, Yanfeng & Zhao, Huanyu, 2024. "Volatility spillovers between oil and coal prices and its implications for energy portfolio management in China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(PB), pages 446-457.
    3. Drachal, Krzysztof, 2018. "Comparison between Bayesian and information-theoretic model averaging: Fossil fuels prices example," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 208-251.
    4. Wang, Lu & Ma, Feng & Niu, Tianjiao & Liang, Chao, 2021. "The importance of extreme shock: Examining the effect of investor sentiment on the crude oil futures market," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    5. Kirstin Hubrich & Helmut Lutkepohl & Pentti Saikkonen, 2001. "A Review Of Systems Cointegration Tests," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(3), pages 247-318.
    6. Davide Ciferri & Maria Chiara D’Errico & Paolo Polinori, 2020. "Integration and convergence in European electricity markets," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 37(2), pages 463-492, July.
    7. John D. Levendis, 2018. "Time Series Econometrics," Springer Texts in Business and Economics, Springer, number 978-3-319-98282-3, April.
    8. Chen, Pei-Fen & Chien, Mei-Se & Lee, Chien-Chiang, 2011. "Dynamic modeling of regional house price diffusion in Taiwan," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 315-332.
    9. Pieters, Gina & Vivanco, Sofia, 2017. "Financial regulations and price inconsistencies across Bitcoin markets," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 1-14.
    10. Tiwari, Aviral Kumar, 2012. "An empirical investigation of causality between producers' price and consumers' price indices in Australia in frequency domain," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 1571-1578.
    11. Tsangyao Chang & Omid Ranjbar & Charl Jooste, 2017. "Stock Market Interactions between the BRICS and the United States: Evidence from Asymmetric Granger Causality Tests in the Frequency Domain," Iranian Economic Review (IER), Faculty of Economics,University of Tehran.Tehran,Iran, vol. 21(2), pages 297-320, Spring.
    12. Lee, Chien-Chiang & Chiu, Yi-Bin, 2011. "Nuclear energy consumption, oil prices, and economic growth: Evidence from highly industrialized countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 236-248, March.
    13. repec:kap:iaecre:v:11:y:2005:i:2:p:149-162 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Ding, Lili & Zhao, Zhongchao & Han, Meng, 2021. "Probability density forecasts for steam coal prices in China: The role of high-frequency factors," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    15. Miller, J. Isaac & Ratti, Ronald A., 2009. "Crude oil and stock markets: Stability, instability, and bubbles," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 559-568, July.
    16. Li, Raymond & Leung, Guy C.K., 2011. "The integration of China into the world crude oil market since 1998," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(9), pages 5159-5166, September.
    17. Regnard, Nazim & Zakoïan, Jean-Michel, 2011. "A conditionally heteroskedastic model with time-varying coefficients for daily gas spot prices," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 1240-1251.
    18. Kühl, Michael, 2010. "Bivariate cointegration of major exchange rates, cross-market efficiency and the introduction of the Euro," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 1-19, January.
    19. Kayhan, Selim & Bayat, Tayfur & Yüzbaşı, Bahadir, 2013. "Government expenditures and trade deficits in Turkey: Time domain and frequency domain analyses," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 153-158.
    20. Cristina Bencivenga & Giulia Sargenti, 2010. "Crucial relationship among energy commodity prices," Working Papers 5, Doctoral School of Economics, Sapienza University of Rome, revised 2010.
    21. Nazlioglu, Saban & Soytas, Ugur, 2011. "World oil prices and agricultural commodity prices: Evidence from an emerging market," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 488-496, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:13:p:3752-:d:580137. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.