Coal

Background

Electricity mix: ourworldindata.org.

 Updates (infrequent)

September, 2021: coal stocks at key global hubs fall by half in 1H21. Link at ArgusMedia. The numbers are daunting:

• expressed as the number of days of local consumption or throughput: 40 days in June
• is a 47% reduction y/y and last year was the year of the plague
• this number now nears the bottom of the 2017 - 2019 range
• the data reflects a tighter supply-demand balance in 2021 which has been a key factor in driving seaborne prices higher
• remains a risk ahead of the northern hemisphere heating session
• supply decline driven by two factors:
• inclement weather early in 2021, reduced railing and discharging capacity; mining disruption from safety checks, strikes, and protests
• the compounding impact from rising coal burn in some markets, particularly China and India, driven by firm power demand, and gas-to-coal switching in the Atlantic because of surging gas prices
• much more at the link but despite decline in China, the article mentions nothing about the spat between China and Australia