Coal on the rise after significant drop in 2016

The world's largest coal consumers - China, the United States and India - boosted their coal production in 2017, sharply retreating from a record global recession last year due to the fight against polluting combustible fuels to reduce air emissions.

Mining data show that production in May could be at least 121 million tons, up 6 percent for the three countries compared to the same period last year.

According to the US Department of Energy, this change is most significant in the US, where coal production increased 19 percent in the first five months of the year.

Coal stocks appear to have hit new lows, as British energy company BP said globally mined tonnage fell 6.5% in 2016, the biggest drop on record. China and the US accounted for almost all of the recession, while India increased slightly.

The reasons for the turnaround this year are policy changes in China, changes in US energy markets and India's continued push to provide electricity to more of its poorer regions, industry experts say. They also said that President Donald Trump's role in US coal mining has played an important role.