China, the world's biggest coal producer and consumer, produced 4.07 billion tonnes of coal in 2021, marking a new record high and rising 4.7% from the previous year, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday. The output increased 5.6% from that in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic struck.
The country imported 320 million tonnes of coal last year, the highest level since 2014 and rising 6.6% from a year ago, showed the data.
