OREANDA-NEWS Moscow and Beijing are discussing the signing of a new contract for the supply of coal from Russia. This was stated by Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov, his words are quoted by RIA Novosti.

He clarified that at the moment the agreement between the countries is at the stage of approval. At the same time, Russia has an existing agreement with India on the supply of coal, the minister said on the sidelines of the Eurasian Economic Forum.

In 2021, Russia and India signed a memorandum on the growth of coking coal supplies from 6 to 40 million tons per year until 2030. In February 2022, Deputy Energy Minister Sergei Mochalnikov announced that an intergovernmental agreement with China on the supply of coal in the amount of 100 million tons per year was being developed.

On May 23, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said at the Russian-Chinese Business Forum in Shanghai that the trade turnover between the countries could reach a record $200 billion in 2023, and cooperation with Beijing in the energy sector remains an "unconditional priority" for Moscow. By the end of 2022, China became the largest buyer of Russian coal, importing 69.5 million tons — 31 percent more than a year earlier. India was also among the main buyers, which increased the import of Russian coal by more than 20 times, to 21.8 million tons. At the same time, the total export of coal from Russia by the end of the year collapsed by 13 percent in annual terms, to 194 million tons.

In May, it became known that Russian coal began to lose buyers in Asia, losing competition to cheaper analogues from South Africa and Colombia — prices for raw materials from Russia are falling more slowly than for varieties from these countries. Earlier, both of these suppliers significantly increased exports to Europe in order to replace the supply of Russian coal — its import to the EU was banned in the summer of 2022.