MELBOURNE/JAKARTA : Australia and Indonesia, the world's biggest coal exporters, face an accelerated decline in global demand for their coal shipments after China said it would stop building coal-fired power plants overseas, analysts, environmental groups and industry officials said.
"I think it's the new normal," said Pandu Sjahrir, chairman of Indonesia Coal Miners Association, when asked whether coal miners must accept that global demand may have peaked. Analysis by Market Forces shows since the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015, the global coal power development pipeline has dropped by 76per cent.Estimates earlier this year from Australia's Department of Industry see coal exports continuing to climb for both countries - to 213 million tonnes for Australia and 442 million tonnes for Indonesia by 2023.