Due to sharp price rises in imported coal from Australia, Canada and Indonesia, cement producers increased their reliance on these alternative sources of coal after the South Korean government placed sanctions on Russia in March 2022. Russia exported 14.9MT of cement in the first nine months of 2022. This is 31 per cent higher than the year on year from 11.4 MT in the corresponding period of 2021. Meanwhile in India, Russian coal imports are expected to decline for a second consecutive month in October 2022, by 51 per cent month-on-month to 730,000t. Russian media attributed this to stockpiling by cement market leader UltraTech Cement and others earlier in 2022.