Argus, citing market participants, reported that Thailand’s imports of Russian coal almost tripled on the year in January-May to 498,000 tonne from 164,000 tonne And Russian shipments to Thailand are expected to keep rising because of competitive prices. Russia became the third-largest coal supplier to Thailand this year, with its share of imports rising by almost three percentage points to 5pc in January-May.
A source at a large Russian mining company, said that “In 2019, we plan to increase coal shipments to southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand, as we find more opportunities in this region with growing consumption. Most of the Russian coal trades into Thailand are on a spot basis, and for local buyers price remains the key factor.”
Thai consumers buy Russian coal fines and lower-calorific value brown coal, which can partly replace declining domestic lignite supply. Russia mainly ships brown coal with a CV of less than 5,000 kcal per kg and bituminous thermal coal with a CV of about 5,500 kcal per kg to Thailand.
Source : ARGUS
