EU countries already imported 40% more coal from South Africa in the first five months of this year due to the abandonment of Russian fuel than in the whole of 2021.
This was reported by Reuters.
As of the end of May this year, the Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) in South Africa had delivered 3,240,752 tons of coal to European countries, accounting for 15% of total exports. Last year, this share was 4%.
This year, the Netherlands, Italy, France, Spain, Denmark, Poland, Germany and Ukraine received coal from RBCT. Some of them started importing from Richards Bay only after Russia started a full-scale war in Ukraine on February 24.
The Netherlands did not receive coal from RBCT in January or February, but imported 1.27 million tonnes of coal from the terminal in March, April and May. The volume of deliveries increased monthly. Thus, the Netherlands became the fourth largest recipient of coal from this terminal — the country accounts for 5.76% of the total.
Coal imports from Richards Bay to France have increased almost sevenfold, from just 68,005 tonnes last year to 464,432 tonnes this year.
Spain, Poland and Germany did not import RBCT coal last year. In the first five months of this year, Spain imported 355,250 tons, Poland — 181,515 tons, Germany — 157,383 tons.
Japan, which has also said it will ban imports of Russian coal, has received 388,249 tonnes of coal from a South African terminal since January. This is almost twice as much as the country bought last year.
At the same time, China, which was the third largest importer of coal from RBCT in 2021, did not receive coal from this terminal this year due to increased imports of Russian coal.
- The European Union plans to step up cooperation with African countries to replace Russian gas imports.
- At the same time, Finnish researchers claimed that since the beginning of the war against Ukraine, Russia has doubled its profits from the sale of gas, oil and coal to the European Union.