Global coal production reached 8.74-million tonnes in 2023, marking an all-time high. This despite growing rhetoric and a drive to phase out the use of fossil fuels for power generation globally. New retirement plans and coal phaseout commitments continued to be published in 2023; however, less coal capacity was retired in the year than any other single year in more than a decade.

To meet the 2015 Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 ˚C above preindustrial levels and reducing emissions, coal-fired power generation will need to be significantly lowered.

In South Africa, State-owned power utility Eskom indicated in its latest Medium-Term System Adequacy Outlook, published in November 2023, that no coal-fired power plants would be shut down in the next five years, a departure from its prior plans to decommission 6 000 MW of coal capacity by the end of 2028.

This decision is the result of a delay in progressing the construction of renewables projects in the country in recent years, which most tellingly bears out in the International Energy Agency’s observation that while advances in solar and wind power generation have made these technologies cheaper than coal-fired power in most parts of the world, coal mining will still be necessary to support the energy transition over many decades to come.

Creamer Media’s ‘Coal 2024: Logistics logjam’ report considers coal’s current status globally, the trade thereof and the role it plays in world power demand. It looks at the main and smaller participants in South Africa’s coal sector, as well as the logistics challenges that the sector is facing in getting its coal to port.

This research draws from material published over the past 12 months and is a summary of sources of information published in Engineering News and Mining Weekly, as well as of other information available in the public domain.

This report does not purport to provide an analysis of market trends. The information in this report is correct as of May 2024.