Russia rules out extra state support for coal exports via northwestern and southern ports

Moscow rules out new aid for coal exports

There is no need for additional support for coal exports through Russia's northwestern and southern ports, and those routes are already overloaded with special-purpose cargoes and passenger traffic. According to Lenta.ru, citing Kommersant, that conclusion appears in a letter from Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Savelyev to President Vladimir Putin. The official wrote that spare throughput capacity at these ports is practically exhausted, leaving little room to move more tonnage even if demand allowed.

The letter also notes that the European Union and the United Kingdom no longer buy Russian coal because of sanctions, forcing shipments toward Asia. The long-distance logistics that this reroute requires make Russian coal uncompetitive on the world market. Even so, the government considers the export position of coal-mining companies to have stabilised, and therefore sees no grounds for new assistance.

Ports and miners disagree

Sources in the port and coal industries told Kommersant that the need for export support remains. The Murmansk Sea Commercial Port (MMTP) directly links the fall in loadings at Arctic-basin ports to a rise in railway tariffs of 2.25 times in 2026, an increase it described as outpacing every conceivable forecast. A source in the coal industry argued that a 25 percent discount on Russian Railways (RZD) tariffs would lift loadings in the Leningrad and Murmansk regions by 20 percent.

Not everyone agrees a tariff cut is workable. Maxim Shaposhnikov, adviser to the manager of the Industrial Code fund, said he sees no way to solve the coal export problem through rail-tariff subsidies, because tariffs already sit at a minimal level. In his view, such a measure would only lead to the loss of volumes from other cargoes carried on the same network.

Prices already sliding

Price data underline the pressure on exporters. In the last week of June, the cost of coking coal at Far East ports fell by 6.2 percent, or 10 dollars — the sharpest weekly decline since the start of the year. Over the same period:

• Coking coal prices at Azov-Black Sea ports dropped 2.7 percent.
• Coking coal prices at Baltic ports fell 3.6 percent.

For importers in Asia, the eastward reroute of Russian volumes keeps supply available, but the high logistics costs behind those cargoes limit how far Russian sellers can discount. For Russian exporters, the combination of congested western and southern ports, higher rail tariffs and falling benchmark prices leaves little room to defend margins — and the government has now declined to close that gap with state support.