Although consumption is declining, coal remains the largest source of energy production

According to the Platts Coal Trader International report, in 2019, 36.4% of global electricity production came from steam coal, with a decrease of 1.5 percentage points, compared to 2018.Despite the drop in production, coal in 2019 continued to be the most important source for energy generation. Although in 2019 the total consumption of coal fell to 1577.86 EJ, i.e. by about 0.6%, Asian countries, including China, Indonesia and Vietnam are showing a strong increase in coal demand.Also in India there is still an increase in coal consumption, which, however, has been the lowest there since 2001. Chinese coal consumption of 81.67 EJ increased by 2.3% and constitutes 51.7% of total world consumption.Coal consumption in Indonesia amounted to 3.41 EJ, which is an increase of 20%, and in Vietnam it grew to 2.07 EJ, which is an increase of 30.2%.

Global coal production increased to 167.58 EJ, (+1.5%), although China and Indonesia were the only countries that significantly increased coal production last year. Chinese coal production increased to 79.82 EJ, (+4.2%) and accounted for 47.6% of global production, and Indonesian production increased to 15.05 EJ, (+9.4%) and represents 9% of the total production.