The world’s biggest importer of coal, China, has widened its lead over the second-largest buyer, India, to the highest in more than a decade, according to customs data compiled by Reuters.
Last year, Chinese imports rose while India’s fell, widening the gap between China and India in coal buying, according to the data.
China took advantage of the low international seaborne coal prices in 2024 to boost purchases, while India raised its domestic coal production in an effort to enhance its energy security.
Reuters estimates based on shipping and customs data put India’s coal imports dropping by about 3% last year while Chinese imports surged to a record high.
Global coal demand has surged to another record high in 2024, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said last month, expecting the world’s coal consumption to level off through 2027. While coal demand continues to decline in the EU and the U.S. – although at slower paces than in 2023, China and India saw in 2024 another year of record-high coal consumption. China was on track for a 1% rise to 4.9 billion tons, and India’s coal demand was poised to increase by more than 5% to 1.3 billion tons—a level that only China has reached previously.
Declining international coal prices incentivized China’s coal imports which jumped by 14.4% from a year earlier to a record high in 2024, official Chinese data showed earlier this week.
China’s coal imports surged to 542.7 million metric tons last year, up from the 474.42 million tons imported in 2023, per data from the Chinese General Administration of Customs quoted by Reuters.
This year, China’s coal demand and production are expected to continue rising and the fuel is set to remain the backbone of the country’s energy system, according to China Coal Transportation and Distribution Association.
At the same time, India’s coal imports fell by 3.1% between April and October 2024 from a year earlier, while domestic output rose by 6%, data showed earlier this week.
