Global Coal Industry Keeps Close Watch on China

摘要

When it comes to the future of the global coal industry, all eyes — as with natural gas and oil — are on China, the world's biggest energy consumer. Since the 2008 recession, China's appetite for coal to meet surging demand for power generation has grown so rapidly that it now sets international coal prices, rather than follows them. The International Energy Agency (IEA) reckons that China will by 2016 be burning more than half the world's coal — which won't help its effortsto promote low-carbon growth — and that even the slightest mismatch between domestic supply and demand will have a big impact on global trade and prices.