Global coal demand growth will slow over five years

Growth in global coal demand will slow over the next five years as consumption in China, the US and Europe are expected to ease, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA)

In its Medium-Term Coal Market Report, the IEA said that in the period to 2018, global coal demand will grow by 2.3% per year,  reaching almost 9 billion tonnes. This is down from its previous forecast annual growth rate of 2.6% over the same period. Between 2007 and 2012, global coal demand grew by an average of 3.4% per year, the IEA said. However in 2012 the growth in global coal consumption dropped to 2.3% year-on-year, reaching 7.7bn tonnes. Despite this year-on-year rise of 170 million tonnes in 2012, this was the third lowest annual growth rate in over 10 years. China While China will account for almost 60% of the growth in coal demand – it is expected to need around 476m tonnes of th