Jakarta. Beijing. Hong Kong. Singapore. Taipei.

Demand in the Asia-Pacific region is going to be largely supported by China, India and Southeast Asian countries. According to World Research Institute estimates, there are more than 1,000 coal-fired power plants with a total capacity of more than 1,400 GW currently proposed across 59 countries worldwide, and India and China together account for 76% of them. China expects 240 GW of coal-fired power generation to come online by 2016, which is likely to increase its thermal coal imports substantially to 350 million tons per year from 227 million tons in 2012. India, on the other hand, anticipates 75 GW of coal-fired power generation to come online over the next five years, which would require about 150 million tons per year of thermal coal imports within the period from 108 million tons in 2012.

 

China’s heavy reliance on coal – its coal-fired electricity generators made up 78% of its 1,000 GW installed capacity in 2011 – made it a net coal importer in 2009. Without developing other types of energy sources, for example nuclear, China’s coal demand is likely to exceed 4 billion tons in 2015 and account for more than half of the global total. Even if its current nuclear, gas and renewable targets are met, China is projected to remain a highly coal-dependent economy for the next two decades.