China, which is the largest importer of coal on the world market, has reduced purchases of this resource from Russia. This is reported by the Russian publication The Moscow Times.
According to the results of the first ten months of 2024, the share of Russian coal in China’s total imports decreased to 18% compared to 23% for the same period in 2022. Despite this, Russia remains the second largest supplier of coal to China.
The share of Indonesia, the largest exporter of coal to China, also decreased over the same period, from 58% to 44%. At the same time, the shares of Mongolia and Australia increased to 15% and 10%, respectively. From January to November 2024, China increased its total coal imports by 14.8%, reaching 490 million tons. However, the volume of Russian exports to China decreased this year.
According to the estimates of the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, in 2023 China accounted for 48% of Russian coal exports, which amounted to about 100 million tons, but in 2024 the volume of deliveries began to decrease. In the first half of this year, supplies decreased by 8% to 45.5 million tons.
The main reasons for the decrease in the share of Russian coal in the Chinese market are the reduction of thermal coal supplies due to low prices and export restrictions. In addition, the import of Russian coal is affected by the duty that China introduced in 2014 on anthracite, coking and thermal coal (3-6%). This duty does not apply to Indonesia and Australia due to free trade agreements, which puts Russian coal exports at a disadvantage.
