COLORADO:
The world’s largest thermal coal buyers tapped the brakes on imports during the first quarter of 2025, driving purchases to the lowest quarterly total in three years, data from ship tracking firm Kpler shows.
Global coal imports for the first quarter were just over 240 million metric tons, roughly 10 million tons less than what was shipped during the same quarter a year ago.
China, India, Japan and South Korea – the top global coal importers in 2024 – all reduced first-quarter purchases by more than 10% from the same period in 2024, as sharply higher clean power generation allowed for their utilities to cut coal use.
Continued growth in clean power output may allow for further cuts to coal imports in the top coal markets over the coming months and could trigger their first collective contraction in thermal imports since 2020.
However, several smaller fast-growing economies have expanded coal purchases so far this year, which has somewhat offset the cuts seen in the largest markets and prevented total coal imports from registering a steeper decline.
The top four coal importers, which accounted for 69% of all coal imports in 2024, have been the most aggressive import cutters so far in 2025.
China, the world’s largest coal consumer, led the import reductions by lowering first-quarter purchases to 67 million tons from nearly 85 million tons in the first quarter of 2024.
That was China’s lowest quarterly import tally since the third quarter of 2022. Sluggish industrial activity and record domestic coal production last year have curbed China’s coal import appetite.
India’s first-quarter import total was just below 39 million tons, down 5.6 million tons from the same quarter of last year.
While the largest traditional coal importers have made cuts to coal purchases so far this year, other nations have expanded their coal import volumes.
Indeed, total imports outside of China, India, Japan and South Korea accounted for the largest share of coal imports in three years during the first quarter of 2025.
Turkey, Vietnam and Bangladesh all registered record first-quarter import tallies in 2025, while the Philippines and Malaysia both recorded their second-highest first-quarter import totals.
Thailand, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Morocco and the Netherlands – the main seaborne entry point into continental Europe – also recorded robust first-quarter import totals.
The volume increases seen into these second-tier markets are small compared to the nearly 18-million-ton drop recorded in China so far this year.
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