Most of China's coal imports from North Korea are being consumed by Chinese provinces, where steel, ceramics and metal processing companies are concentrated, with Shandong Province at the top in the imports, a US broadcaster reported Tuesday.

Shandong Province imported $280 million worth of coal from the North during the January-September period this year, taking up 37 percent of China's total imports worth $760 million during the same period, Voice of America said, citing figures from China's General Administration of Customs and the Seoul-based Korea International Trade Association.

Jiangsu Province came next with $170 million, followed by Hebei Province with $160 million and Liaoning Province with $91 million, the broadcaster said.

Notable is that steelmakers and ceramics and metal processing companies are concentrated in those provinces, and they are known to consume most of the coal from the North, according to the broadcaster.

"North Korea exports coal more to Shandong, Hebei and Jiangsu Provinces than to Liaoning or Jilin Provinces adjacent to the North, which indicates the transportation of coal is made largely by ship," the broadcaster said.

As of October last year, coal from the North accounted for 72 percent of China's total coal imports, it added.

The coal trade between the North and China has been criticized as a loophole in UN sanctions, adopted in March in response to the North's nuclear and missile tests in January, which bans the North's exports of coal, a key source of hard currency for the economically-devastated regime. The two countries circumvent the ban, insisting the trade is exclusively for "livelihood purposes."  (Yonhap)