Russian steam coal exporters eye India
12 Sep 2007
Mumbai: Steam coal exporters from Russia expect India to be a new market for their high-quality coal within the next few years, delegates at the McCloskey coal conference in New Delhi said.
The Russian exporters do not see any immediate action on the export front, but expects to make it over a few years. "We will not be exporting anything to India during 2008 but within a few years if they are ready to pay market prices and we can overcome credit and risk issues then India will be a market for us," he said.
India is importing coal from Australia, Indonesia and South Africa and there has been a rush recently to buy coal with the highest calorific value possible because record freight rates make it uneconomic to take mostly low-value coal from Indonesia.
Russia''s major coal exporters, however, said they expect to get higher prices from customers in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan than in India or Pakistan.
Russia''s
largest coal exporters are SUEK, KRUTrade and MirTrade. Russian spot coal FOB
Vostochniy is currently around $80 a tonne.