Seaborne coal imports into the EU fell further during 2025. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Banchero Costa said that “in Jan-Dec 2025, global seaborne coal loadings declined by -2.8% y-o-y to 1,333.1 mln t (excluding cabotage), based on vessel tracking data from AXS Marine. In Jan-Dec 2025, exports from Indonesia declined by -6.9% y-o-y to 496.1 mln tonnes, whilst from Australia were down by -0.4% y-o-y to 354.6 mln t. From Russia exports increased by +6.5% y-o-y to 172.6 mln t in Jan-Dec 2025, from the USA declined by -10.6% y-o-y to 81.0 mln t, from South Africa increased by +3.8% y-oy to 64.5 mln t. Shipments from Colombia declined by -14.9% y-o-y to 47.6 mln t in JanDec 2025, from Canada by -2.7% y-oy to 47.9 mln t, from Mozambique by -2.7% t-o-y to 20.7 mln t”.

Source: Banchero Costa

According to Banchero Costa, “seaborne coal imports into Mainland China declined by -11.1% y-o-y to 379.7 mln t in Jan-Dec 2025. Imports to India declined by -5.6% yo-y to 223.2 mln t, to Japan declined by -3.6% y-o-y to 151.5 mln t in JanDec 2025, to South Korea down by -3.2% y-o-y to 106.7 mln t. Imports to Vietnam declined by -0.2% y-o-y to 56.4 mln t, whilst to Taiwan volumes declined by -5.7% yo-y to 52.7 mln tonnes. To the EU imports were down by -1.4% y-o-y to 63.7 mln tonnes in Jan-Dec 2025, and to Turkey went down -4.5%% y-o-y to 36.2 mln t”.

“The European Union is now the fifth largest seaborne importer of coal in the world, after China, India, Japan and South Korea. In 2024, the EU accounted for 4.7% of global seaborne coal shipments, down from 9.9% in 2022. The EU’s seaborne coal imports surged in 2021 by +23.3% y-o-y to 92.3 mln t and then again in 2022 by +38.2% y-o-y to 127.6 mln tonnes as a consequence of lower gas imports from Russia, but have now again softened back. However, already in 2023, European imports declined sharply by -30.4% y-o-y to 88.8 mln tonnes, and then further by -27.2% y-o-y in 2024 to 64.6 mln tonnes”, the shipbroker said.

Source: Banchero Costa

Banchero Costa added that “this essentially returns Europe to a previous trend where it progressively abandoned coal as a source of energy and embraced natural gas and renewables. We already saw European coal imports declining by -32.9% y-o-y in 2020, by -18.3% y-o-y in 2019, by -7.6% y-o-y in 2018. This year things flattened out, with imports of 63.7 mln tonnes in JanDec 2025, down marginally by -1.4% y-o-y, still 50% down from 2022. In terms of sources of the shipments, Europe was heavily dependant on Russia, but this has now drastically changed. In 2021, as much as 44% of the EU’s seaborne coal imports were sourced from Russian ports. In 2025, as a result of the war in Ukraine, this proportion declined to 9.5%, which also includes Kazakh coal shipped through Russian ports. In Jan-Dec 2025, coal imports to the EU from Russian ports surprisingly rebounded by +64.5% y-o-y to 6.1 mln t from a low of 3.7 mln t in JanDec 2024, but still -80% down from the 38.3 mln t in Jan-Dec 2021. The most important supplier to Europe in Jan-Dec 2025 was the USA, accounting for 28.5% of Europe’s imports. In Jan-Dec 2025, volumes from the USA to the EU increased by +1.2% yo-y to 18.2 mln t, but were still well below the 24.2 mln t in Jan-Nov 2023. The second largest supplier to Europe is Australia, accounting for 23.2% of the EU’s imports in 2025. In Jan-Dec 2025, imports from Australia to the EU declined by -15.9% y-o-y to 14.8 mln t. In third place is Colombia, with a 14.5% share in 2025. In Jan-Dec 2025, volumes from Colombia to the EU increased by +1.6% y-o-y to 9.2 mln t, although this is well below the 14.8 mln t in Jan-Dec 2023”, the shipbroker concluded.
Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide