Northwest Europe hikes Russian thermal coal imports

Russian thermal coal shipments to major coal consuming countries in northwest Europe rose by 7pc, or almost 600,000t, on the year to 9mn t in January-March, continuing last year's trend of increasing, EU customs data show. The growth was mainly the result of stronger supplies to the UK, Finland, Belgium and Sweden. In addition, Ireland received 157,000t of coal from Russia in the first quarter of this year, having taken no Russian coal in the same period a year earlier.

The first-quarter increase took place amid a dramatic decline in shipments to the region from other major exporters, which allowed Russia to increase its share in the region's coal imports by 11 percentage points to 53pc.