Data from the coal consultancy Bigmint revealed that Indian imports of Russian coking coal fell while U.S. shipments increased in the three-month period ending in May. This was attributed by traders to a decrease in Russian prices.

Bigmint data shows that Russia's coal exports to India during the period decreased by 22.4% compared to a year ago, to 6.76 millions metric tons. U.S. coal exports increased 14.4% in the same time period to 6.68 millions tons.

The drop in Indian coal imports was primarily due to a 67% decline in thermal coal shipments, which are used mostly for power generation. The Bigmint data revealed that purchases of steelmaking coals such as anthracite, coking coal and pulverized coal-injection (PCI) coal increased during this period.

India is Russia's largest coal market, after China. The decline follows new western sanctions against Russia due to the conflict in Ukraine. Buyers downplayed the impact of these sanctions, saying that Russia thermal coal would be less attractive without lower discount rates amid a fall in global prices.

The main issue is the thermal coal price and not sanctions. The logistics cost in Russia has increased, which is why they cannot compete," said K.C. Gandhi, the Joint President of Materials Management for India's Shree cement.

In May, Russia increased coal supplies to China in response to lower Indian exports.

U.S. thermal coal exports to India for the three-month period ended May 31, up 21.6% compared to a year ago, totaling 4.57 million tonnes. Its share of Indian imports increased from 6.7% to 9.2%. Its share of India's imports of coking coal fell from 16% down to 13.5%.

The Bigmint data revealed that a 44% increase in Russia's imports of coking coal to India in the past year pushed the country's share on India's seaborne steelmaking feed market to 13.9%. Its share for thermal coal imports in India fell from 8.8% to 3.2%.

The Russian imports of anthracite, PCI and other grades of steel in India continue to be the majority.

Riya Vyas is a senior analyst with iEnergy Natural Resources Limited in India, a coal trading company. She said that other thermal coal exporting nations may benefit from Russia's price constraints. (Reporting from Sudarshan Varadhan in Singapore and Shivangi Acharya in New Delhi, edited by Christian Schmollinger).