China produced 3.8% more coal this April than a year ago, at 389.31 million tons. This was down from a month earlier when production hit a record but still strong enough to cement coal’s role in the country’s energy mix.
Coal imports in April fell by 16% amid weaker prices that stimulated consumption of domestic supply.
Production over the first four months of the year stood at 1.58 billion tons, customs data cited by Reuters revealed. The number represented an annual increase of 6.6%.
Over the same period, thermal power generation in China declined—as did overall generation. The decline stood at 4.1% to 1.98 trillion kWh, Reuters reported separately, again citing official statistics from Beijing. In April alone, thermal power generation fell by 2.3% on an annual basis.
The decline in power generation was related to the tariff spat that President Trump began earlier this year, and that affected industrial activity in the world’s largest exporter. Now, this activity is coming roaring back after the U.S. and China struck a 90-day deal—and so is coal.
Over the first quarter of the year, power generation from wind and solar in China accounted for as much as 39% of total supply, according to data from climate think tank Ember, released earlier this month. This was a record high and an 18% increase from the first quarter of 2024. However, a big reason for the record was that same subdued industrial activity that dragged down overall consumption of electricity. With things changing in the current quarter, the share of wind and solar will almost certainly decline in favor of baseload generation from thermal power plants, powered overwhelmingly by coal.
Coal generation in China last year broke yet another record, reaching an all-time high of 6.34 trillion kWh. Growth is slowing, indeed, and the surge in wind and solar has slashed the share of coal in China’s energy mix from 80% to a little over 50%, but the reliability of coal generation continues to keep it ahead of wind and solar.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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