Colombia's coal exports during the first six months of the year surged around 38% from last year, to around 42 million tonnes. The country's government said Colombia's coal output is expected to increase to 97 million tonnes this year, and most of its coal cargoes are shipped toward Europe. Despite the prolonged economic crisis, Europe's coal imports are gradually increasing as European utilities are taking advantage of the cheap carbon credit prices. Colombia's coal exports are therefore expected to remain at a similar pace as 1H during the remainder of this year. However, there are still two issues regarding its export activities. The first one is the country's coal export capacity limit, which is currently around 90 million tonnes, although there are huge expansion projects coming online in the next few years. The local labour issue is the second problem to impact Colombia's coal exports. For the time being, apart from the strike from Glencore's coal miners, the local railway workers from Fenoco have also launched strikes. This company transports around 40 million tonnes coal per year for export, around 50% of the Colombia's total exports.
Source: ICAP Shipping