Global Coal & Lignite

The Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th Centuries was achieved solely because of use of coal as energy source. Prior to that, there was only non-commercial energy, or traditional biomass, as we call today

For over two hundred years, coal has provided the input for electricity production as well as for Iron & steel manufacture, and other critical industries like cement, paper and fertilisers

While oil took over as the largest source of primary energy in the 1960s, coal continues to remain second largest source accounting for about 27% of the global primary energy requirements, behind Oil at ~31%

Coal has two distinct markets, first as “Coking Coal” or “Metallurgical Coal”, and the second as “Non-Coking Coal” or “Steam Coal” or “Thermal Coal”

Coking coal is used in the process of creating “Coke” that is necessary in iron & steel making. Coke is a porous, hard black rock of concentrated carbon that is created by heating bituminous coal in the absence of air to extremely high temperatures

Non-coking coal cannot form cake when heated in absence of air and is burnt to produce steam to run turbines to generate power, using its thermal value

Lignite, also known as brown coal, is a soft, brownish-black, low-ranking coal with a high moisture content

The three countries, China, India and the United States account for more than 70% of world coal use. China alone accounts for nearly 50% of the world coal production and usage

Most of the countries that consume substantial amounts of coal also have large domestic coal resources / production; hence volume of globally traded coal is relatively small compared to the total global consumption (~15% for Coal vs ~32% for Gas vs ~45% for Oil)

Advertisement Space — Coming Soon

Explore global Coal and Lignite indicators:

Consumption

Total Coal Consumption MMTPA

Thermal Coal Consumption MMTPA

Metallurgical Coal Consumption MMTPA

Lignite Consumption MMTPA

Production

Total Coal Production MMTPA

Thermal Coal Production MMTPA

Metallurgical Coal Production MMTPA

Lignite Production MMTPA