Foreign buyers are gradually abandoning the US dollar in payments for Russian coal. Indian companies are increasingly resorting to other national currencies, with yuan dominating the amounts of transactions. This trend is caused by Indian counterparties willing to mitigate the risks of violating Western sanctions amid higher supplies of Russian material.
In June, Indian consumers paid for 742,000 t, equal to 44% of all Russian coal supply to India that month, using currencies other than the US dollar. The yuan accounted for 31% of payments, for Hong Kong dollars 28%, for the euro less than 25%, and for the UAE dirham about 16%.
For example, Raspadskaya, a Russian coal company, which a year ago did not carry out transactions in yuan, keeps Chinese currency in the equivalent of 92 million dollars on its accounts while reducing the amount of the US dollars.
Market participants expect that in the future the number of non-US dollar payments in settlements with Russian coal exporters will only increase.
In July, Russia became the third largest coal supplier to India, as the country reduced shipments of South African material and increased imports from Russia to 2.1 mio t (+0.4 mio t or +20% m-o-m).
Source: CAA
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