The volume of exports of Russian coal in April decreased by more than 20%.

Coal export from Russia

This is reported by the railway magazine Railway Supply with reference to RZD-Partner.

According to the Ministry of Energy of the aggressor country, coal exports in April decreased by more than 20%, since the beginning of the year the decline was 9%. It is also assumed that the fall may continue.

Note that within the framework of the fifth package of sanctions, the EU banned the import and transit of coal from Russia. The embargo will take effect from August. The annual volume of coal imports from the Russian Federation is estimated at 8 billion euros.

The cargo owners and senders themselves, in addition to the difficulties associated with sanctions pressure, say that Kuzbass coal miners are experiencing difficulties in the Far East in delivering coal to ports.

“Difficulties are associated with the obligations of Russian Railways to export fixed volumes of coal products from producers east of Kuzbass. These volumes are accompanied by other highly profitable cargoes for the carrier, redirected from west to east due to the geopolitical situation. As a result, now the working scenario looks like the volume of coal export from Kuzbass in the amount of less than 53 million tons, which corresponds to the level of 2021. Recall that the order of the President of the Russian Federation for 2022 set the figure of 58 million with an increase of 5 million annually in 2023 and 2024,” said a representative of a large consignor of solid fuel JSC Transmetkoks.

According to him, problems with the export of coal products from Russian ports slow down the entire logistics chain, starting with loading in the western and southern directions. The difficulties are caused, first of all, by the reluctance of shipowners to get involved in the transportation of coal products of Russian origin. In the south, an additional constraint is the “difficult geopolitical situation” in the Azov-Black Sea basin.

“Owners of the rolling stock are now faced with the fact that a gondola car is not particularly needed in Kuzbass. Three months later, transportation to consumers in Ukraine and transit through it completely dropped out. The presentation of cargo to the Russian ports of the northwest and south has been reduced. Most of all, cargo owners are concerned about further uncertainty: until July 1, the operation of the methodology that allows calculating the volume of transportation to the east has been suspended. There is no understanding of the level of railway tariffs in future periods. The abolition of reduced coefficients for the transportation distance, the introduction of an “inflationary” component in the tariff will have a negative impact on the volume of presentation of bulk cargo,” the representative concluded.

The share of EU countries in the total export of Russian coal last year amounted to 21.8% – almost 48.7 million tons of coal.

As previously reported, Poland imposed an embargo on coal from Russia and Belarus. In addition, Germany and Japan have announced the refusal of coal from the Russian Federation. And in Finland, activists blocked the train with coal from the Russian Federation.

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