After being plagued by Western sanctions, Russian coal producers have been successful in finding alternative buyers.
According to RT, the “savior” of Russia’s coal mining industry is none other than China.
According to recent data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics, the country’s coal production from Russia has increased by nearly three times over the same period last year.
Specifically, the amount of coal of Russian origin imported into China in March 2022 reached nearly 1.4 million tons, up 36% compared to the turnover of 1.1 million tons in February 2022. This figure is also nearly 3 times higher than the imported volume of 590 thousand tons in March 2021.
Coal imports from Russia are said to be essential to China’s huge metallurgical industry. For that reason, China is already Russia’s largest coal trading partner with total imports worth $7.4 billion last year.
According to RT, thanks to price incentives, Chinese customers are also very interested in importing more coal reserves from Russia, despite difficulties in getting loans from banks due to concerns about the effects of sanctions.