FX.co ★ Coal Rises to 5-Month High

Thermal coal futures from Australian ports surged past $111 per tonne in late January, marking the highest point since August of the previous year. This climb is attributed to robust demand for power generation across various sources. China plans to introduce over 100 new coal power generators in the current year, supplementing the more than 400 generators already under construction. This development indicates that despite previous preferences for renewable energy, the world's largest thermal coal consumer will continue to depend on coal. This is in line with the global trend of expanding power generation capacity to accommodate the increasing demand from data centers and electric vehicle charging. Additionally, Indonesia's coal output is projected to decrease to 600 million tons this year, down from nearly 800 million tons last year, primarily due to reduced imports from China and India.