Page 8 - AsiaElec Week 13 2022
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       Japan’s Idemitsu Kosan





       suspends coal imports





       from Russia






         JAPAN           JAPANESE coal importer Idemitsu Kosan has  month from Indonesia, the embassy added.
                         suspended buying new coal shipments from   Russia was Japan’s third-largest coal supplier
                         Russia for its Japanese customers over concerns  after Australia and Indonesia in 2021, supplying
                         about shipping and payment.          19.734m tonnes, or 11% of the country’s total
                           Shipping companies have been wary of load-  imports of 182.629mn tonnes, according to Min-
                         ing Russian cargoes, with sanctions on financial  istry of Finance data.
                         institutions creating uncertainty over payments.  Australia accounted for 65% of Japan’s total
                           Idemitsu said it would look to suppliers from  2021 coal imports, followed by Indonesia at 12%.
                         Indonesia and Australia to fill the supply gap,   Idemitsu produces coal in Queensland, New
                         according to a report from S&P Global Com-  South Wales and Indonesia and mined 8.613mn
                         modity Insights.                     tonnes between April and December 2021,
                           About 11% of Japan’s coal, or 19.7mn tonnes,  around 90% of it from Australia.
                         was supplied by Russian exporters in 2021,   Japan’s continued reluctance to end coal
                         making Russia Japan’s third-largest source of  funding has contrasted with its commitment to
                         imports. Idemitsu has also suspended Russian  green targets.
                         crude oil imports.                     In 2021, Tokyo managed to water down the
                           Japan has been acutely concerned about coal  G7’s commitment to phasing out coal, with Jap-
                         imports this year, with Indonesia’s January ban  anese media saying that the grouping’s recent
                         on coal exports causing price volatility and con-  meeting of environment ministers had stopped
                         cerns in Japan about security of supply.  short of calling for the total abandonment of
                           China, India, Japan and South Korea together  coal-fired power generation.
                         received 73% of Indonesian coal exports in 2021.   Japan’s reliance on coal-fired power stems
                         Of these, Japan and South Korea called publicly  partly from the 2011 Fukushima crisis that led
                         for Indonesia to ease off on its ban, as did the  many of its nuclear plants (NPPs) to suspend
                         Philippines.                         operations for safety checks.™
                           Japan imports about 2mn tonnes of coal per





































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