It is hard to believe in a global peak in coal consumption in the coming years, as India, Vietnam, Bangladesh and many other countries with a combined population of under 3 billion people have a long way to go. But India, like China, will rely on domestic resources. With external energy supplies, the Greater India project is unlikely to take place. Expensive primary energy imports also derailed much more developed economies, such as Germany and Japan.
Nevertheless, there are few sales markets for thermal coal today, and according to the forecasts of the IEA, they will stagnate. The sun and wind will gradually displace imported coal in China, Japan, Korea, etc. In other words, competition for survival in foreign markets will intensify.
The Russian coal industry has few advantages. With extremely low production costs, domestic coal miners are forced to give more than half of their export earnings to logistics companies such as railways, ports, and shipping companies. And this is the main problem of the industry. It can be solved by transferring energy not via rails, but via power lines. But so far neither the coal industry nor the domestic electric power industry is ready for this.
