India Switches to Asian Currencies For Its Coal Imports From Russia - Report

Russia became India’s third-largest coal supplier in July, outperforming Australia, the US, Mozambique and Colombia, with imports jumping to a record 2.06 million metric tons, data from Indian consultancy Coalmint showed. Russia has historically been the sixth largest coal supplier to India.

Setting aside the use of US dollars in trade transactions, Indian firms have reportedly made payments in Asian currencies for their coal imports from Russia.

Citing customs documents, the news agency Reuters reported that Indian steelmakers and cement manufacturers used the UAE dirham, Hong Kong dollar, Chinese Yuan, and Euro in recent weeks for their coal imports from Russia.

Indian firms paid 31 percent of the total non-US dollar payment in Chinese Yuan in June, while 28 percent of the settlement was in Hong Kong dollars.

Many countries are examining ways of switching to non-dollar payments in foreign trade amid the West’s pressure on a number of countries that have refused to implement unilateral sanctions imposed on Russia.

Moreover, some of them have increased energy supplies from Russia, offered at reduced prices, including India.

This is evidenced by the trade data compiled by consulting agency Coalmint that showed a 70.3 percent jump in Russian thermal coal imports in July on a month-to-month basis.