OREANDA-NEWS  Kazakhstan has increased the transit of coal through Russia to the far abroad by 11.2%, to 9.9 million tons, follows from the Argus presentation "Changes in the logistics of supplies and transit of dry cargo in the countries of Central Asia and the South Caucasus" (available to Kommersant). The bulk of coal was sent to seaports (an increase of 8.1%, to 9.3 million tons).

After the introduction of the European embargo on Russian coal, Kazakhstan became one of the countries that replace Russian supplies in the EU market. According to Eurostat, for 11 months of 2022, EU countries increased coal imports from Kazakhstan to 4.9 million tons against 780 thousand tons in the same period of 2021. Meanwhile, Russian coal companies are redirecting supplies to Asia.

Although shipments of large volumes of Kazakh coal are still carried out through the ports of Taman and Ust-Luga, the highest growth dynamics are demonstrated by the ports of Latvia - Ventspils and Riga.

According to Argus, the shipment through Ventspils increased 2.4 times to 2.4 million tons, and through Riga — 13 times, to 630 thousand tons. In January 2023, the administration of the Free Port of Ventspils reported that the sanctions against Russia had become "a serious shock for the transit industry" and especially for the port, where traditionally most of the transshipment fell on transit cargo from Russia. "Already at the end of 2021, the port's entrepreneurs managed to start cooperation with the owners of coal cargoes from Kazakhstan, which made it possible to complete 2022 with good results," the port said in a statement. In 2022, the volume of coal transshipment at the port increased by 420%, or 2.6 million tons.

Argus believes that in the first quarter of 2023 it is possible to increase shipments from Kazakhstan to the Baltic ports and Poland due to discounts on rail transit through Russia.