section_path: Coal industry/As a traded commodity
section_name: As a traded commodity
paragraph_text: As a traded commodity
  
  China mines almost half the world's coal, followed by India with about a tenth. Australia accounts for about a third of world coal exports, followed by Indonesia and Russia, while the largest importers are Japan and India. Russia is increasingly orienting its coal exports from Europe to Asia as Europe transitions to renewable energy and subjects Russia to sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine.
  
  The price of metallurgical coal is volatile and much higher than the price of thermal coal because metallurgical coal must be lower in sulfur and requires more cleaning. Coal futures contracts provide coal producers and the electric power industry an important tool for hedging and risk management.
  
  In some countries, new onshore wind or solar generation already costs less than coal power from existing plants. However, for China this is forecast for the early 2020s and for southeast Asia not until the late 2020s. In India, building new plants is uneconomic and, despite being subsidized, existing plants are losing market share to renewables.