South Africa has significantly increased its coal exports to Israel in the wake of Colombia’s ban on sales that went into effect in August, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing data from commodity-tracking companies.
South Africa’s coal exports to Israel rose by 87% in the three months to November on an annual basis, and are set to reach the highest level since February 2017, the report said, citing data from the South African Revenue Service.
The Latin American nation was Israel’s largest coal supplier until 2024.
But its Industry and Commerce Ministry in August 2024 published an edict to end coal sales to the Jewish state, as part of Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s severing of diplomatic ties with Jerusalem over the war against Hamas in Gaza.
According to data viewed by Reuters, Columbia was still shipping coal to Israel in 2025, accounting for about 42% of Israel’s two million tons of coal imports this year.
South Africa’s boost of coal exports to Israel comes despite its public denunciations of the Jewish state, including charging Israel with genocide before the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Its share of Israel’s seaborne coal market is set to more than triple from 2024 levels to 55%, Reuters reported.
One top supplier of crude oil to Israel is Azerbaijan, whose route of supply via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline runs through Turkey.
Ankara, whose bellicose rhetoric against the Israel has reached seething levels during the latter’s military campaign against Hamas, has continued to permit the flow of Azerbaijani oil via the pipeline.
