India has emerged as a major market for Australian coal exports in the wake of China's politically motivated move to stop buying its coal.
In the first 10 months of 2021, Australia exported 51.6m tonnes of coal to India, up 74% year on year, according to figures from Banchero Costa.
India is now the destination for 19% of all Australian coal exports in a remarkable reshuffle in trade patterns this year.
Similar growth occurred in shipments to South Korea: Australia exported 47.2m tonnes of coal there between January and October, an increase of 50.6% year on year.
Shipments from Australia to the European Union surged by 38.4% year on year to 11.2m tonnes, according to Banchero Costa.
Japan remains the top destination for Australian exports, with 84.7m tonnes shipped in the first 10 months, up by 16.7% year on year.
Japan is the destination for 31.1% of Australia's coal exports, with South Korea on 17.3%, Taiwan 9.8% and the EU 4.1%.
In contrast, exports to mainland China declined by 96.9% year on year to 2m tonnes. China has been the destination for just 0.7% of Australian coal this year.
Overall, Australia exported 272.3m tonnes of coal in the first nine months of 2021, which was up 1.3% from a year ago, although down 6.2% on the same period in 2019.
The first quarter was the weakest for exports so far this year, just 85.1m tonnes, a 5.8% decline from the same period in 2020 and down 7.4% from the first three months of 2019.
In the second quarter, Australia exported 91.2m tonnes, down just 0.1% from last year's weak second quarter, but down 9.3% from the same period in 2019.
In the third quarter, things improved considerably, with 96.1m tonnes, which was 10.3% up on a year ago and just 1.8% below the 97.8m tonnes in the corresponding period in 2019.
Australia is still very much the top exporter of coal worldwide, with 30.8% of global seaborne exports this year, ahead of Indonesia's 27.9%.
