China Thermal Coal Consumption Slows, As India Sees Huge Growth

Thanks to a plateau in coal demand for power generation and a decline in coal demand for other purposes, China’s domestic consumption could remain virtually stagnant over the next five years, suggest Deutsche Bank analysts. Michael Hsueh said in his March 24 research note titled “Thermal Coal: Surpluses are here to stay” that he anticipates that price pressure will generally remain to the downside for thermal coal.

Slowing growth in power consumption in China

On the back of softening demand in China and India’s greater reliance on domestic coal resources, Hsueh argues that longer-term forward balances look as wide as ever. He points out that China and India rank third and fifth in the world in coal reserves, behind the U.S., Russia...