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Indian Businesses Are Purchasing Russian Coal By Exchanging Dollars For Asian Currencies

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 Indian Businesses Are Purchasing Russian Coal By Exchanging Dollars For Asian Currencies
11 Aug 2022
6 min read

News Synopsis

According to customs records and industry sources, Indian companies are increasingly using Asian currencies to pay for Russian coal imports rather than the U.S. dollar, reducing the danger of violating Western sanctions against Moscow.

A significant Indian coal sale involving the Chinese yuan was previously in news, but the customs data highlight show non-dollar settlements are more widespread. Since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, India has aggressively increased its imports of Russian coal and oil, helping to protect Moscow from the consequences of sanctions and enabling New Delhi to obtain raw resources at a lower cost than supply from other nations.

Russia surpassed China to become India's third-largest coal supplier in July as imports increased by a record 2.06 million tonnes compared to June. According to a summary of transactions compiled by a trade source based in India using customs documents, Indian buyers paid for at least 742,000 tonnes of Russian coal in June using currencies other than the U.S. dollar. This amount represents 44% of the 1.7 million tonnes of Russian imports that month.

According to separate customs documents examined by Reuters, Indian steelmakers and cement producers recently purchased Russian coal using the United Arab Emirates dirham, Hong Kong dollar, yuan, and euro.

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