“One of the largest Taiwanese importers of coal – Taiwan Cement Corporation (TCC) – announced the complete termination of cooperation with Russia.”, — write: www.ukrinform.ua
The company TCC, which bought fuel in Russia for its Hopping power plant, decided to refuse new contracts from September. The last batch of Russian coal will arrive in Taiwan in October.
Previously, Taiwan, which did not join Western sanctions against the Russian Federation, was among the five largest importers of Russian coal. In the year from the spring of 2023, he purchased more than 10 million tons. Thus, Russia provided almost a fifth of all coal imports to Taiwan.
According to estimates by the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air, since the beginning of the Russian war against Ukraine, Taiwan has spent $3.5 billion on the purchase of Russian coal. It accounted for about 5% of all coal exports of Russia. Moreover, this year the supply increased by 30% in comparison with 2023 and by 1.5 times – with 2022.
Read also: Rosstat recorded an almost fourfold drop in profits The loss of a large Taiwanese client promises new problems for Russian coal miners, who have already lost almost 12% of exports in January-July. The main buyer – China – has reduced imports by 8%, and there are no prospects for its growth, recently complained the head of the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation Serhiy Tsiviliev.
According to the results of the first half of the year, the Russian coal industry, which includes more than 30 monocompanies and 650 thousand employees (including related enterprises), became unprofitable. According to official data, its net financial result is minus 7.1 billion rubles ($77 million).
Read also: China’s largest state-owned banks are reducing business in Russia due to payment problems In general, the publication notes, more than half of Russian coal companies have become unprofitable.
As reported, at the beginning of September, the Russian-Chinese project for the development of the Zashulan coal deposit, the largest in Transbaikalia, remained unfunded due to China’s restriction of cross-border payments with Russia.
Photo: Bloomberg