Coal consumption in the Asia-Pacific region
According to the IEA, 83% of the coal mined worldwide is consumed in the Asia-Pacific region, with China alone accounting for more than half of global consumption. India and Indonesia are also increasing their use of coal year after year.
Coal consumption in the Asia-Pacific region
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), 83% of the coal mined worldwide is consumed in the Asia-Pacific region. China is the world’s largest coal consumer, accounting for more than 50% of global consumption. According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, the country’s coal output rose by 2.9% in 2023 to 4.66 billion tonnes. That year China imported 474.42 million tonnes of coal, 61.8% more than a year earlier, according to the General Administration of Customs. It is also the highest volume on record. Rising coal consumption in China reflects not only growth in electricity generation but growth in metallurgy, which points to serious economic growth over the past decade. China is also focusing on developing nuclear power, renewables and hydropower. These sectors are undergoing substantial change (I will examine these areas of China’s energy sector in other topics).
By comparison, the United States consumes roughly ten times less coal than China: about 445.2 million tonnes in 2023, down 13.15% on 2022. As I noted earlier, the US is shifting its energy sector mainly to gas as its primary fuel, replacing coal-fired plants with gas-fired ones, so its coal output and consumption fall every year, even though it has the largest coal reserves in the world.
India increases its coal consumption every year, building a large number of coal-fired power plants and using coal in its metallurgical industry. Economic growth presupposes the development of metallurgy. Smelting pig iron and steel requires large amounts of coking coal and a great deal of energy. In the current financial year (1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024) India exceeded the previous year’s output of coal and lignite, at 937.22 million tonnes.
Another fast-growing economy in the Asia-Pacific region is Indonesia, which consumed 33% more coal than a year earlier. In 2022 Indonesia produced 690 million tonnes of coal. In 2023 it raised output to a record 775 million tonnes. Indonesia is also a major coal exporter, but domestic demand is growing rapidly, especially from the power sector and the nickel-processing sector, which points to the country’s economic growth.