India has emerged as a major new market for Australian coal exports in the wake of China’s politically motivated move to stop buying its coal. In the first 10 months of 2021 Australia exported 51.6m tonnes of coal to India, up 74% year-on-year, according to figures from Banchero Costa. India is now the destination for 19% of all Australian coal exports in what has been described as a remarkable reshuffle in trade patterns this year.

Similar growth was also seen to South Korea with Australia exported 47.2m tonnes of coal to the country between January and October 2021, an increase of 50.6% year-on-year. Shipments from Australia to the European Union also surged by 38.4% year-on-year over the same period to 11.2m tonnes, according to Banchero Costa.

Japan remains the top destination for Australian coal exports with 84.7m tonnes shipped in the first 10 months of 2021, up by 16.7% year-on-year. Japan is now the destination for 31.1% of Australia’s coal exports, with South Korea 17.3%, Taiwan 9.8%, and the EU at 4.1%.

In contrast, coal exports from Australia to Mainland China declined by 96.9% year-on-year in the year-to-date to just 2m tonnes. China has been the destination for just 0.7% of Australia’s coal this year.

Overall, Australia exported 272.3m tonnes of coal in the first nine months of 2021, which was up 1.3% year-on-year from a year ago, although down 6.2% on the same period in 2019.

The first quarter of 2021 saw the weakest exports of coal so far this year at just 85.1m tonnes, which was a 5.8% decline from the levels seen in the same period in 2020 and down 7.4% from the first quarter of 2019. In the second quarter of 2021, Australia exported 91.2m tonnes, down just 0.1% year-on-year from the weak second quarter of last year, but down 9.3% from the same quarter of 2019. In the third quarter things improved considerably, with 96.1m tonnes, which was 10.3% on a year ago and just 1.8% below the 97.8m tonnes seen the corresponding period in 2019.

Australia is still very much the top exporter of coal worldwide, with 30.8% of global seaborne coal exports this year, ahead of Indonesia’s 27.9% share.