Freight trainsMOSCOW, Mar 30 Major players in the coal market, such as Australia and Colombia, will be able to replace Russian coal for Poland, but this will provoke an increase in costs and, as a result, an increase in the cost of coal for Polish consumers, Alexander Amiragyan, head of the Economics of the Fuel and Energy Complex department of the Center for Strategic Research Foundation (CSR), told RIA Novosti. Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki said earlier on Wednesday that Poland would completely phase out Russian coal in April or May, and in general, imports of Russian energy resources by the end of this year. «/>Poland will refuse to import Russian energy products by the end of the year «In the event of a legislative ban on the import of Russian coal, Polish consumers will be forced to look for alternative suppliers, which may be Australia, Colombia or other major players in the world market. This will increase transport costs and increase the cost of coal for consumers in Poland,» Amiraghyan said. The CSR analyst recalled that in 2021, the volume of coal imports to Poland from Russia amounted to 7.7 million tons, which is 22% lower than the crisis level of 2020 and 30% lower than the level of 2019. «The share of Russian coal in Poland's consumption is declining, for 2021 it was estimated at 6-7%, although in some years it reached 10%,» the expert added. «It should also be noted that in recent years, renewable energy sources have been actively developing in Poland (solar and wind power plants), which gradually reduces the country's dependence on coal generation, and coal consumption is declining,» Amiragyan recalled. He also noted that although the Polish market for Russian coal is one of the main ones in Europe, the country's share in total supplies is small . «According to the Federal Customs Service of Russia, in 2021 Russia exported 210.6 million tons of coal, of which only 3.7% came from Poland. In this regard, the refusal to purchase from Poland should not hit Russian suppliers hard, and the volumes may be distributed among other consumers,» the expert concluded.
