Russia will become the leading exporter of coal within a decade

Russia, the world's largest coal-mining country, plans to increase production and exports over the next 15 years. Russia's share of the global coal export market is projected to rise to 25 percent from the current 11 percent.

According to the draft state strategy document issued by the Russian Ministry of Energy, production will grow to 448-530 million tons per year until 2024 and up to 485-668 million tons per year until 2035.

Domestic coal consumption will increase by more than 12 percent; it is currently around 196 million tons per year. The countries of the Asia-Pacific region, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa will remain the main markets for Russian coal.

Russia already exports significant volumes of coal to China (about 30 million tonnes per year), but there remains great potential for increasing exports in the coming years. The Department of Energy expects exports to China to nearly double over the next 10 years to 55 million tons, up from their current level.

Another Asian market, India, also plans to "significantly increase" imports of coking coal from Russia's Far East ports. Vietnam has already tripled its purchases of Russian coal with the commissioning of several new coal-fired power plants. Meanwhile, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects Russia to overtake Indonesia as the top thermal coal exporter during this decade.

Coal mining has long been a key industry in Russia, and production costs are among the lowest in the world.

Combined with high transport costs, primarily rail transport, these factors make the final price of Russian coal virtually comparable to prices offered by some of Russia's major global competitors, such as Australia and South Africa.

Russian transport leaders are currently exploring the possibility of expanding the export capacity of coal, which has become the most important export commodity in terms of rail throughput. It is planned to start more active development of the railway and port infrastructure, including the expansion of the throughput capacity of the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Baikal-Amur Railway.