Europe South Africa relations in demand – Starting the second week of August 2022, Russian coal imports will be banned in the European Union, part of wide-ranging sanctions on Moscow.
South Africa becoming Europe’s alternative to Russian coal as European countries are having to source coal from alternative supplying countries to that of Russia. This has resulted in European countries importing 40% more coal from South Africa’s main export hub in the first five months of 2022 in comparison to the numbers imported throughout 2021.
Europe South Africa coal trade – The statistics show that South Africa’s Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) has delivered 3,240,752 tonnes of coal to European countries from January to May 2022. This figure amounts to a staggering 15% of RBCT’s overall exports, up from 2,321,190 (4%) in 2021. Among the list of European countries that have sourced coal from South Africa since the beginning of 2022, is the Netherlands, Italy, France, Spain, Denmark, Poland, Germany, and Ukraine. Of which some of the countries only began importing from RBCT after Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022.
Import statistics show that the Netherlands didn’t import any coal from RBCT in January or February of 2022, but since the start of the Russian invasion has imported 1.27 million tonnes of coal from the terminal in March, April and May, with volumes increasing each month. The Netherlands is ranked the fourth top recipient of RBCT coal, accounting for 5.76% of total import volumes from Europe.
Moreover, coal imports between France and from RBCT South Africa has increased from a low 68,005 tonnes for the duration of 2021 to an impressive 464,432 tonnes within the first few months of 2022.Spain, Poland and Germany were also among the European countries who did not import any coal from RBCT in 2021. Within the first five months of this 2022, import statistics have showed that Spain has imported 355,250 tonnes, Poland 181,515 tonnes and Germany 157,383 tonnes.
The surge in exports from South Africa to Europe came despite a backdrop of poor performance at RBCT, underscoring the missed opportunity for South Africa as prices of the fossil fuel shot up.
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