China, India lead revival in thermal coal imports

There are some tentative early signs that weak thermal coal prices are starting to boost import demand among Asia’s heavyweight buyers China and India.

- Clyde Russell

Asia's seaborne imports of the fuel used mainly to generate electricity rose to a five-month high of 74.12 million metric tonnes in May, according to data compiled by commodity analysts Kpler.

This was up from 68.56 million tonnes in April, although it was still below the 78.30 million tonnes from May 2024.

For the first five months of the year Asia’s imports of seaborne thermal coal were 346.96 million tonnes, down 7.0% from the same period in 2024.

The decline was largely driven by weaker demand from China and India, the world’s two biggest importers of coal.

China's seaborne imports of thermal coal were 116.62 million tonnes in the January-May period, down 13.6% from the same period in 2024, while India’s were 71.07 million, a decline of 4.7%.

China's appetite for seaborne coal has waned so far in 2025 after reaching a record in 2024, as strong domestic output and higher hydropower and renewable energy curbed coal-fired generation.

The latest available data showed China produced 389.31 million tonnes in April, up 3.8% from the year-earlier month, while output for the first four months of the year was 1.58 billion tonnes, up 6.6%.