Reduced demand for coal in China has led to a domestic price decline of the fuel, which has affected the global market. Credit: humphery via Shutterstock.

China’s coal production has increased despite the fuel’s share of electricity generation suffering a consistent decline.  

According to data published on 15 August by the National Bureau of Statistics, China’s coal output increased by 2.8% in July, compared to July 2023, reaching 390.37 million tonnes (mt).  

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Despite an increase in its supply, however, thermal power sources have not experienced the same growth in the share of electricity generation in China.   

The country’s thermal power generation fell last month for a third consecutive month, compared to year-earlier levels, dropping to 574.9 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), down 4.9% from July 2023.  

Reuters reported that increased coal production but declining use of the fuel in the country has cut prices and import volumes, affecting the global market. The news agency said China’s coal price decline has already triggered Indonesia and Australia, the two largest coal exporters in the world and top suppliers of the fuel to China, to adjust their prices accordingly. 

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Thermal power is increasingly losing more of its market share in China due to the expanded deployment of renewable energy. According to Power Technology’s parent company GlobalData, solar photovoltaics (PV) registered 59.59% of the country’s total electricity technologies deployed in 2023, with a net annual addition of 245GW. Wind registered 21.88% of this mix while thermal technologies made up 15.7%.  

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Nevertheless, thermal power sources remain the leading electricity source in China, totalling 64.54% of the country’s total generation capacity in 2023, according to GlobalData.  

Coal constitutes the majority of China’s thermal power output. Of the 6,068,551.8 gigawatt-hours (GwH) of thermal generation registered in 2023, coal took 5,577,954.8GwH of this figure.