China’s coal imports slowed down markedly last month amid ample domestic supply, low prices, and rising generation from wind and solar.
At 36.04 million tons, May coal imports were down from 43.82 million tons in April, customs data cited by Reuters showed. This is the third consecutive monthly decline in coal imports in the world’s largest importer of the commodity. For the first five months of 2025, coal imports declined by 8% from a year earlier, to a cumulative 188.7 million tons, compared with 204.9 million tons for January-May 2024 amid a price rout that saw coal sink to the lowest in four years.
Over the first four months of 2025, China produced 1.58 billion tons of coal, which was 6.6% higher than the output booked for the same period a year earlier. In April alone, China produced 3.8% more coal than a year ago, at 389.31 million tons. This was down from a month earlier when production hit a record, but still strong enough to cement coal’s role in the country’s energy mix.
Meanwhile, thermal power generation declined over the first four months of the year, by 4%, according to Reuters, while wind and solar generation increased, covering a 3% increase in electricity demand. And yet, this year has seen a rebound in new coal power plant approvals in China, after the first decline in years in 2024.
Last year saw a significant shift in coal power approvals in China, with a 41.5% year-on-year drop in approvals to 62.24 GW, marking the first annual decline since 2021. But the pace of approvals accelerated this year, despite the continued boom in solar and wind power installations. In the first quarter of the year, coal power plant approvals hit 11.29 GW, compared with 10 GW for the first quarter of 2024.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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