German coal importers group VDKi said Germany should be able to find alternatives to importing Russian hard coal by the winter peak demand season, but there will be technical problems and cost increases.

“Coal procurement along sea routes can be changed, however at higher prices,” the association’s chairman, Alexander Bethe, said in a statement in reply to an enquiry.

“A conversion to alternative coal qualities is not unproblematic for the power plants. However, it should be possible to completely dispense with Russian coal by next winter,” he said.

Last year, Germany imported about 18 million tons of coal from Russia for steel and electricity production.

VDKi said Russian supply bottlenecks since late last year have prompted importers to seek alternatives, including from Australia, Colombia, Indonesia, Mozambique, South Africa and the United States.

EnBW in southwest Germany, which bought 3.6 million tons of Russian coal last year for power and heat generation, accounting for 86% of total consumption, said it has reserves that will last far into the current year.

She also said that she was accelerating purchases from alternative producing countries, and the situation with the potential loss of supplies from Russia was under control.

Estimated coal prices for delivery to Europe in 2023 are just under $197 per tonne, according to data from Refinitiv Eikon. That's below the contract high of $250 in early March, when fears of shortages were first raised in the event of an embargo, but nearly triple the price a year ago.