Global market stagnates as Indonesia’s metallurgical coal imports surge

Indonesia is playing two contradictory roles in a sluggish global coal market. Its coal exports fell significantly in the first half of 2026, yet its industrial expansion helped push up imports of metallurgical coal.

A report by Bombay Strategy said global coal trade rose just 0.8% year on year to 639.9 million tonnes in the first half of 2026. That remained well below the 677.1 million tonnes recorded during the same period in 2024. The modest recovery was driven not by thermal coal, which fell 0.9%, but by metallurgical coal, coke and anthracite, whose combined volume rose 4.4% to 157.3 million tonnes.

The increase came even as global steel production declined 0.7%. Hozefa Merchant, founder of Bombay Strategy, said the figures represented a marginal correction from a weak 2025 base rather than a market expansion. He attributed the rise in metallurgical coal imports largely to domestic supply disruptions in China, India’s removal of import quotas for metallurgical coke, and expanding nickel and aluminium processing capacity in Indonesia.

“Indonesia’s ambition in this sector is becoming increasingly clear, with the acquisition of Anglo-American’s mining portfolio in Queensland, Australia, by an Indonesia-based company listed in the United Kingdom, signaling a long-term strategy to secure the domestic industrial supply chain,” Merchant said in a statement on Tuesday, September 8, 2026.

Global thermal coal imports fell 1.7% while Indonesia tightened exports from March through June. Asia, which accounted for 88.6% of global thermal coal volumes, recorded a 3.6% decline. Europe also reduced thermal coal imports by 11.1% year on year, despite disruptions to liquefied natural gas supplies from Qatar.

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Indonesia’s ambition in this sector is becoming increasingly clear, with the acquisition of Anglo-American’s mining portfolio in Queensland, Australia, by an Indonesia-based company listed in the United Kingdom, signaling a long-term strategy to secure the domestic industrial supply chain.