Oct. 27 — According to data from BigMint, an analytics company, Russia lost third place among the world’s leading suppliers of thermal coal. Russia’s exports of it have decreased by 18.16% in the period from January to September, The Insider reported. 

Indonesia remained the global leader, exporting 240. 3 million tones of thermal coal. Australia is in second position, supplying 151.2 million tons, while South Africa shipped 52.1 million tons in the first nine months of 2026, reaching third position. Mongolia showed the largest growth by 73% to 24 million tons. 

At the same time, Russia has fallen to 42.5 million tons of exported thermal coil during the first nine months of 2026. This is the sharpest decline among the largest suppliers, The Insider reported. 

The media outlet calculated that in absolute terms, Russian deliveries fell by almost 9.7 million tons compared to the same period. Meanwhile, total global trade volume decreased by 3.2% — to 602.5 million tonnes — or roughly by 19.9 million tonnes. 

According to The Insider, Russian exports suffered their largest losses in the Turkish and Chinese markets. Shipments to Turkey fell by 32%, to 15.7 million tons, and to China by 26%, to 15.1 million tons. India was the only market where shipments rose to 9.6 million tons. 

However, BigMint did not calculate all of Russia’s coal exports. Data from a global analytics platform, Kpler, shows that seaborne shipments of Russian coal of all grades during the same period, conversely, grew by 7.25% to 135.86 million tonnes, The Insider said. 

Still, sales difficulties have triggered a financial crisis in the Russian coal industry. Russia Federal Statistics Service indicates that, in January and July of 2026, the cumulative losses of coal mining companies reached $2.2 billion with 64.5% companies operating at a loss. At the same time, the Russian Ministry of Energy estimates industry losses for 2026 will reach $3.8 billion.

In Kuzbass, Russia’s largest coal-mining region, 20 out of 93 mines and open-cast pits were idle as of August 2026. The number of workers in the coal sector fell from 103,000 to 97,300 over the year. 

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