Europe intends to abandon Russian coal in response to the war in Ukraine. In preparation for an embargo on Russian coal, Europe is turning to non-traditional suppliers. One of these countries is Kazakhstan, which has already delivered a volume exceeding the 2021 figures. Thus, cooperation between Europe and Kazakhstan opens up new opportunities and ways of development for both sides.
According to analysts, Kazakhstan can seriously increase the supply of coal to the EU, as its coal is suitable for European power plants.
For the period from January to May, Kazakhstan supplied 1.5 million tons of coal to the EU countries. These figures are twice as high as for the whole of 2021. Deliveries in January and February amounted to 140-200 thousand tons. However, after the start of the war in Ukraine, Kazakhstan sends 300-400 thousand tons to the EU every month. If we compare the figures, for example, a year ago, they amounted to only 60 – 70 thousand tons.
Export from Kazakhstan to the countries of the EU in January-August 2022 increased by 50.7%. The growth in exports is justified by an increase in the supply of such goods as: crude oil (by 84.7%), uranium (growth by 2.2 times), ferroalloys (by 57%), sulfur, except for sublimated, precipitated or colloidal sulfur (growth by 3 .2 times), wheat (by 54.1%), copper and copper cathodes (by 16.5%), coal (an increase of 2.1 times).
Now the main problem will be logistics: fuel from Kazakhstan is sent to Europe through the territory of the Russian Federation.
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The export of agricultural products also increased. The total volume of deliveries of oilseeds from Kazakhstan to the EU is estimated at 358.3 thousand tons, which is 39% more than the total volume of deliveries to the EU countries in the previous season. In the structure of these deliveries, almost 88% fell on oilseeds, about 10% – on meal and cake, and only 1% – on vegetable oils.
Kazakhstan also doubled wheat supplies to Europe. For seven months, 183.3 thousand tons of Kazakh wheat were sent to Europe, which is 2.1 times more than in the last year period (85.7 thousand tons). In terms of value, wheat exports to European destinations increased 3.1 times – from $25.1 million to $77 million.
The trade turnover between Kazakhstan and the EU, in general, in January-August 2022 increased by 43% and amounted to $26.3 billion. For 8 months from the beginning of this year, the volume of trade between Kazakhstan and the EU countries reached almost $30 billion, an increase of more than 40 % compared to the same period last year.
