Turkey's thermal coal imports in January rose to the highest in three months, gaining 36.2% on the year to 2.080 million mt with Colombian volumes displacing Russian imports as the country's main supplier of the fuel, according to data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) published Monday.
Colombian thermal coal supplies into Turkey jumped 211% from the same month last year and gained 49% from December to 969,578.9 mt in January, the highest since October.
Russia was the second largest supplier of thermal coal in the month, sending 774,233 mt into Turkey, 2% up from 2013 and a 1% bump from December.
The top two were followed by South Africa, which supplied 165,983 mt in January, 28% down on the year, and Ukraine, which doubled year on year to 130,960 mt and rose 213% on the month.
Meanwhile, US thermal coal imports dropped almost completely to just 19 mt, down from the previous year's 37,121 mt.
TUIK data showed that Turkey's January coking coal imports jumped 13% on-year to 512,909 mt but fell 15% from December, with US volumes making up about 58% of the total.
