Research agency Standard & Poor’s Global Platts (S&P) says there is a lack of upside signals for global coal demand, and the agency remains cautious around any significant rebound.
This follows a bull market for coal that ran from 2016 to 2018, when global coal prices appeared to bottom out by the third quarter of last year.
Coal prices were down by roughly a third on the year at their lowest point of 2019, as coal had to compete with weakening natural gas in Europe.
S&P says coal demand growth also slowed in China last year.