International coal consumption reached an all-time excessive in 2024, climbing to eight.77 billion metric tons as international electrical energy demand outpaced the growth of renewable vitality.
Regardless of its contribution to international warming, coal stays rooted in vitality programs worldwide, and short-term consumption is ready to rise.
“Coal is commonly thought-about a gas of the previous, however international consumption of it has doubled previously three many years,” The Worldwide Vitality Company (IEA) mentioned in its newest report, revising coal demand larger.
This enhance is primarily fueled by demand from international locations like India and Indonesia, which offset reductions in coal use by superior economies resembling america and the European Union.
China performs a pivotal function on this development, accounting for over a 3rd of the world’s coal consumption, as its demand reached 4.9 billion tons in 2024. Regardless of large investments in renewable vitality, coal-fired vegetation proceed to generate about 60% of China’s electrical energy.
Imports additionally hit a report, reaching 542.7 million tons of coal in 2024, a 14.4% enhance from the earlier yr. Decrease worldwide coal costs allowed China to stockpile provides and keep steady home vitality prices.
“The rise in China’s coal imports in 2024 was supported by declines in seaborne coal costs, which inspired import arbitrage in relation to China’s home provide for a wider vary of coal varieties,” Toby Hassall, lead coal analyst for LSEG, mentioned per Reuters.
He estimated that its coal consumption grew round 1%, regardless of subdued consumption within the cement and metal sector owing to the actual property disaster.
China made notable progress in diversifying its vitality sources, because the IEA expects it to account for nearly 60% of world renewable vitality capability put in by 2030. Nonetheless, these efforts haven’t been sufficient to scale back coal consumption considerably.
The IEA’s evaluation means that China will proceed setting annual information for coal use for at the least just a few extra years.
The IEA predicts international coal demand will plateau by 2027, although this stabilization will happen at record-high ranges. Nonetheless, these predictions ought to be taken with a grain of salt, because the company has been shifting the goalposts on peak coal use for years.
Given China’s insatiable vitality urge for food and Donald Trump’s second time period, it would not be stunning if consumption edges larger effectively into the 2030s.
Vary International Coal ETF COAL is down 4.47% year-to-date.
Learn Subsequent:
Photograph by way of Shutterstock
Market Information and Knowledge dropped at you by Benzinga APIs
© 2025 Benzinga.com. Benzinga doesn’t present funding recommendation. All rights reserved.
