NBS: China's 2024 coal output hits record high

In December alone, the world's largest coal producer mined about 438.85 million tonnes of coal, up 4.2% from the year-earlier level and higher by 2.5% from November.

Daily output over the final month of the year averaged 14.16 million tonnes, down from November's record high daily average of 14.27 million tonnes.

The record-high for China's coal output was mirrored in the country's coal import volume last year, which reached a record high of 542.7 million tonnes, the latest data from the country's General Administration of Customs revealed earlier this week.

Behind the record production and import levels was the fact that country's power generation sector is still dominated by coal-fired plants. China's thermal power generation, mostly through burning coal, reached 6.34 trillion kWh in 2024, higher by 1.5% from 2023, according to NBS data.

Meanwhile, the country's production of metallurgical coke in 2024 slipped by 0.8% from 2023 to 489.27 million tonnes, the NBS figured showed, a result that stands in stark contrast to the 3.6% on-year increase in total coke production in 2023, Mysteel Global notes.

During last year, China's steel industry continued to struggle with weak consumption, mainly from the sluggish real estate market, the central pillar of domestic steel demand. China's total crude steel output last year fell by 1.7% on year to about 1 billion tonnes, as reported.

For December, China produced about 41.48 million tonnes of coke, up 0.2% from a year earlier and by 2% from November.

Written by Winnie Han, hanyueran@mysteel.com

Edited by Russ McCulloch, russ.mcculloch@mysteel.com