US and Europe to account for 3% of global coal consumption by 2026?
>The dominance of China in coal markets is stronger than any other country for anyother fuel. It consumes more than half of the world’s coal and produces half of it,
and it is the largest importer, accounting for close to one-third of the global coal
trade. But India and ASEAN also exert a growing influence – helping further shift
the focus of the coal market towards Asia. In 2000, advanced economies
accounted for almost half of global coal consumption (48%), while China and India
together accounted for 35%. Coal consumption has declined in the European
Union since the 1980s and in the United States since the 2000s, whereas it has
grown strongly in China, India and ASEAN. As a result, in 2026, we expect China
and India to account for more than 70% of global coal consumption. By contrast,
the European Union and United States are expected to each account for around
3% of global coal consumption. This increasing gap in reliance on coal between
countries could present challenges for future international dialogue on the need
for rapid decline in global coal use to reach climate goals.
https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/a72a7ffa-c5f2-4ed8-a2bf-eb035931d95c/Coal_2023.pdfExports are the only hope for American coal. Met coal will have plenty of markets, but at most, maybe the US could ramp up thermal coal exports to 200 million tons per year by decade's end. So maybe we'll produce and export 300 million short tons per year for export by 2030, thermal + metallurgical.
