FX.co ★ Coal Prices Slide as Energy Demand Softens

Newcastle coal futures dropped below $105 per ton, continuing their downward trend this month and moving further away from the three-week peak observed in late September. This decline follows the release of new data revealing that, for the first time in history, renewable energy has surpassed coal in global electricity generation. In the first half of 2025, solar and wind energy not only satisfied but exceeded the growth in global electricity demand, which resulted in a slight decrease in fossil fuel consumption compared to the previous year. This development is consistent with the International Energy Agency's forecast, which anticipates that global clean energy capacity will double by 2030, reaching 4,600 gigawatts—an output comparable to the combined production of China, the EU, and Japan. Nonetheless, specialists have warned that this expansion might not be sufficient to meet the world's swiftly increasing electricity requirements. On the supply side, China's thermal coal production was still 3% higher in the year-to-date figures for the first eight months of 2025.