Professional Documents
Culture Documents
information:
Over view
2017
2 - COAL INFORMATION: OVERVIEW (2017 edition)
The following analysis is an overview from the publication Coal Information 2017.
Please note that we strongly advise users to read definitions, detailed methodology and country specific notes
which can be found online under References at www.iea.org/statistics/topics/coal/
Please note that all IEA data are subject to the following Terms and Conditions found on the IEA’s website:
http://www.iea.org/t&c/
COAL OVERVIEW
Figure 1: World coal consumption
Summary variation 2015-2016 (Mtce)
1
Table 1: Total world coal production (Mt) slight recovery of production in 2016, current levels
2014 2015 2016p are still 5.7% lower compared to 2014.
Steam coal 6 010.1 5 834.6 5 407.0 Since 2000, coal production in the People’s Republic
Coking coal 1 108.7 1 081.1 1 074.3
Lignite 815.4 811.1 783.3 of China has increased by 139.3%, despite falling by
Total2 coal 7 934.1 7 726.8 7 268.6 13.5% since 2013. In comparison, the OECD total
Peat 15.2 10.1 ..3 coal production declined by 14.7% for the same peri-
Oil Shale/sands 21.4 20.0 ..3
od, being the fall in 2016 the largest annual decline.
1. Production includes recovered slurries and similar sources.
2. Total coal comprises steam coal, coking coal and lignite, so excludes Historically, OECD coal production as a percentage
peat, and oil shale and oil sands even though they are shown here for
completeness. of global production was 56.6% in 1971 but has be-
3. Peat and oil shale and oil sands data are not currently compiled on a come 23.7% in 2016.
provisional basis for non-OECD countries.
Figure 2: World total coal production (Mt)
The People’s Republic of China remained the world’s
8 000
leading coal producer, as it has been since 1985, with
7 000
3 242.5 Mt of total coal produced –320.7 Mt, 9.0%
lower than in 2015. Falling production of United 6 000
Figure 3: Steam and coking coal trade that had fallen by 16% compared to 2013 levels.
as a percentage of consumption
Exports to the People’s Republic of China reached
60% 98.7 Mt representing 26.7% of the total Indonesian
50%
exports in 2016.
450
30%
400
20% 350
300
10% 250
200
0%
1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006 2011 2016p 150
100
OECD imports OECD exports
Non-OECD imports Non-OECD exports 50
World trade 0
1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006 2011 2016p
Australia Colombia
Overall, global trade reached 1 333.5 Mt in 2016,
Indonesia Russian Federation
17.9% of coal consumption on an energy basis.
South Africa United States
Global trade has been growing faster than global con-
sumption on a relatively consistent basis, as evidenced The decline of United States exports by 18.5% pro-
in the chart above which shows regional trade as a moted the rise in Colombian exports which hit a rec-
portion of consumption on an energy basis. However ord of 83.3 Mt in 2016 with Colombia exporting
in 2015, world trade decreased slightly at 21.9% of 92.1% of its coal production. While coal production
consumption, and increased in 2016 to 22.8%, the and exports increased by 5.8% and 7.1% respectively,
highest level. domestic consumption decreased to 7.2 Mt – a decline
of 7.1%. Traditionally, the market for Colombian coal
Exports has been Europe and North America. However,
Australia and Indonesia remained the world’s largest Colombian coal exports to Asia grew in 2016, with
coal exporters in 2016, with 29.2% and 27.7% of ex- Japan and Korea ramping up.
ports on a tonnage basis. Despite its decline in domes- Table 4: Major coal exporters (Mt)
tic consumption, the Russian Federation, third in the
rank, contributed with 171.1 Mt – representing a share 2014 2015 2016p
Australia 375.0 392.3 389.3
of 12.8%.
Indonesia 409.2 366.7 369.9
South Africa, Colombia and Mongolia hit records ex- Russian Federation 155.5 155.2 171.1
ports in 2016, exceeding 2015 levels by 1.3%, 7.1% Colombia 81.2 77.8 83.3
South Africa 69.0 75.5 76.5
and 78.3% respectively.
United States 88.2 67.1 54.7
The combination of the ten largest exporting countries Netherlands1 31.3 36.6 40.6
Canada 34.5 30.5 30.3
shipped 95% of global coal exports during 2016.
Mongolia 19.8 14.5 25.8
Indonesian coal export rose slightly by 0.9% in Kazakhstan 30.9 31.2 25.7
2016, increasing to 368.9 Mt from 365.7 Mt in 2015, Other 74.7 60.7 66.3
driven by high imports to the People’s Republic of World 1 369.3 1 308.1 1 333.5
China. Despite the continued declines in Chinese 1. For 2013 data and onwards, the Netherlands made a conscious
decision to stop trying to account for coal in transit. As a consequence
coal demand, imports increased as a consequence of there was a very large increase in both their imports and exports
leading Netherlands to be the 7th largest coal exporter despite having
the reduction in its domestic production. This rise bene- no indigenous production and the world’s 6th largest coal importer.
fited Indonesia allowing the recovery of its exports Data for Australia are provided on a fiscal basis.
200
Looking at the OECD Asia Oceania and non-OECD
Asia Oceania (including China) regions combined,
150
their total imports increased to 973.0 Mt (72.9% of all
100 imports) from 922.3 Mt, or 70.3% in 2015, with the
50 top five individual importers being from this area, as
0 has been the case since 2009. Although China is re-
1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006 2011 2016p sponsible for a significant proportion, Japan, Chinese
Taipei and Korea imported significant quantities of
PR of China Germany
India Japan
steam coal for electricity generation and coking coal
Korea Chinese Taipei for steel production in 2016.
The next five largest importing countries were from
Total world coal imports were 1 331.3 Mt in 2016, a Europe or Eurasia. However their combined 2016 im-
1.5% increase from 2015 numbers. The main contributor ports of 198.2 Mt were still less than either India’s or
to this rise was the People’s Republic of China whose the People’s Republic of China’s alone.
imports increased by 25.2% in 2016, to 255.6 Mt, revers-
ing partially the 30.0% drop seen in 2015.
Figure 6: World coal consumption (Mtce) This means that the United States has slipped to be-
6 000 come the third largest coal consumer on an energy ba-
sis, being overtaken by the People’s Republic of China
5 000
in 1987 and India in 2015.
4 000
Domestic coal consumption in Indonesia increased by
3 000 3.8% in 2016 to reach 60.8 Mtce. The country has
kept a constant growth pace during the last five years,
2 000
reflected an increase of 22.4 Mtce or 58.3% since
1 000 2011.
0
Consumption changes in the United States and the
1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006 2011 2016p United Kingdom were a key driver of changes to
OECD Americas OECD Asia Oceania OECD total consumption as United States consumption
OECD Europe China (Incl. Hong Kong) declined by 41.6 Mtce, United Kingdom by 17.2 Mtce,
Other non-OECD World total and the other 33 countries in the l lower coal use for
power generation, with increasing in the use of natural
Steel production and cement manufacture are indus- gas and renewable sources.
tries strongly dependant on coal, with China the
world’s largest producer. In 2015 the People’s Republic
of China produced 446 Mt of coke oven coke (66.0% Uses of coal
of world production), 804 Mt of crude steel (49.6% of
world production), 696 Mt of pig iron (59.9% of Figure 8: Percentage of primary coal used for
world production), and around 2.35 Gt of cement electricity and commercial heat production
(57.3% of world production)2.
100%
90%
Figure 7: Shares in world coal consumption (%)
80%
70% 70%
60%
60% 50%
40%
50%
30%
40% 20%
10%
30%
0%
1971 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015
20%
OECD World Non-OECD PR of China
10%
Coal comprises steam coal, coking coal and lignite. Power and commercial
0% heat produced from derived products is not shown here, and instead counts
1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006 2011 2016p
as consumption in transformation to manufacture the secondary fuel.
Figure 9: Primary coal’s OECD and Non-OECD dropped from 41.0% in 1971 to 27.1% in 2016.
breakdown by broad activity (Mt)
Meanwhile in OECD Asia Oceania, generation from
8 000
coal has risen from 18.0% in 1971 to 39.4% in 2016.
7 000
Figure 11: Share of electricity and heat produced
6 000
from primary coal in 2015 (%)
5 000
4 000 90%
3 000 80%
70%
2 000
60%
1 000
50%
0 000
1978 2015 1978 2015 40%
Non-OECD OECD 30%
10%
Residential also contains data for the Commercial and public services
sector. Iron and steel includes coke oven coke manufacture and PCI/GCI. 0%
In addition to other conventional consumption, Other includes non- OECD OECD OECD PR of OECD Non-
specified industry, which may contain iron and steel consumption, and Americas Asia Europe China OECD
also non-energy uses. Oceania