Colombia shipped 4.8 million tonnes of thermal coal in September, the most since March 2024, as buyers in Europe, the Mediterranean and Asia turned to its competitively priced coal while other suppliers struggled.
September exports rose 5% from August and 11.4% from a year earlier, beating the 4 Mt forecast. The 2026 export forecast was raised to 48.6 Mt, up 7.1 Mt year on year.
Supply problems in Kazakhstan, Russia’s Black Sea ports and Indonesia have pushed buyers towards Colombia. Most of its coal travels on large Capesize vessels, so the extra volume matters for freight too.
European coal burn as gas stays expensive, Turkish restocking, and whether shipments to Israel resume after the embargo ended.
The figures are based on vessel-tracking data. Colombia exported 34.9 million tonnes of thermal coal in January–September, 5 million tonnes or 16.4% more than a year earlier. The forecast for the whole of 2026 has been raised to 48.6 million tonnes, 7.1 million tonnes above 2025, and the forecast for 2027 has been increased as well.
Europe is the biggest driver. Shipments to the EU jumped to 1.7 million tonnes in September, from 1 million tonnes in August and 930,000 tonnes a year earlier, bringing the nine-month total to 8.7 million tonnes (up 28.8%). With very high gas prices, the clean dark spread — the margin for burning coal in a power plant after carbon costs — is approaching €100/MWh for the fourth quarter, and Europe’s few remaining coal plants are running at full capacity.
Türkiye doubled its intake to 860,000 tonnes in September, from 440,000 tonnes in August and 380,000 tonnes a year earlier. Turkish buyers have turned to Colombian suppliers since coal stopped arriving from Taman and other Black Sea ports in August. Shipments to Türkiye reached 3.2 million tonnes in January–September, up from 1.9 million tonnes a year earlier. Some of this may be restocking: Turkish coal-fired generation recovered to an average of 10.9 TWh a month in July–September, from 5.6 TWh in April–June.
Other destinations in January–September included South Korea (3.8 Mt, up 21.5%), Mexico (3.3 Mt, up 47%), Chile (3 Mt, down 6.7%), Brazil (2.5 Mt, up 26.8%), the Dominican Republic (2.2 Mt, up from 1.6 Mt), Taiwan (1.8 Mt, down 31%) and Morocco (1.7 Mt, up from 930,000 tonnes).
There were still no exports to Israel, even though the new Colombian government has ended the embargo.
Source: Industry coal market report, 26 October 2026. Figures as reported on 26 October 2026; forecasts are the report author's and may be revised. Summary and wording by Megawise.
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