South African coal exports to Europe reached 9.6m tonnes in the first nine months of the year, an increase of 528% year-on-year, according to data from brokerage Banchero Costa.
The European Union is now the second largest destination for coal from South African after India, with 20% share, it said.
The bloc's coal imports from Russia in the nine-months ending September 30 declined 26.3% to 20.5m tonnes.
South Africa is the world’s fifth largest seaborne exporter of coal, after Indonesia, Australia, Russia, and the US. It accounted for 5.4% of global coal exports between January and September.
Exports to India and China have declined by 29.5% and 32.1%, respectively, he noted. India and China have been importing more coal from Russia, where exports to India are up 130.7% year-on-year.