2021 continues to see a steady but consistent recovery in coal demand and trade. Colombia is the world’s sixth largest exporter of coal, and the second largest in the Americas after the USA. In the first 10 months of 2021, coal trade increased by +5.1% y-o-y to 984.7 MMT, from 936.7 MMT in the same period of 2020.

Export volumes from Columbia have steadily declined in recent years, as it is being penalized by declining coal demand in the Atlantic basin, and by its distance from the more resilient Asian markets.

Colombia exported 46.1 MMT of coal, which was up +6.6% y-o-y from the same Jan-Oct period in 2020, although still down -25.0% from the same period of 2019.