Russia moves up to third place among India’s coal suppliers

Russia overtook China as India’s third-largest coal supplier in July as imports increased by more than a fifth from June to a record 2.06 million tons, according to figures from the Indian consultancy Coalmint.

Russia has historically been the sixth-largest coal exporter to India, behind Indonesia, South Africa, Australia, and the United States with Mozambique and Colombia alternately appearing in the top five.

India anticipates that the recent decision by its central bank to permit payments for commodities in Indian rupees will significantly boost bilateral trade with Russia. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, India’s imports from Russia have increased by roughly five times to over $15 billion.

India, the second-largest coal producer, importer, and consumer in the world, has historically purchased more Coking coal from Russia than from Australia, which is the other major source. Coking coal is used primarily in the production of steel.

Steep discounts offered by Russian suppliers to Indian consumers in recent months have helped to incentivize higher buying of thermal coal used mainly in power generation especially as global prices have traded at near-record highs due to western sanctions choking traditional trade.

According to Coalmint data, thermal coal imports from Russia increased by 70.3% in July compared to June to a record 1.29 million tons, while coking coal imports increased by more than 65% to more than 280,000 tons.

The report suggests that South Africa just beat out Russia as the leading supplier, followed by Indonesia. According to two Indian importers, cement producers and steelmakers were the key drivers of higher Russian coal imports.

The Coalmint data indicated that overall Indian coal imports, including shipments of anthracite and PCI coal, were roughly 10% lower in July at 23.8 million tons than the record imports of 26.29 million tons in June.