During the first half of 2023, China approved 52 gigawatts (GW) of new coal power, which was more than all the approvals issued in 2021. These new approvals are in addition to the 136 GW of coal capacity that are already under construction. Together, these new plants represent more than 67% of all new approvals in the world.

China is mining record amounts of coal and also importing record volumes of coal as it looks to boost its energy security. This growing appetite for coal is inevitable given the huge demand from the power sector and industry in general. 

Over 1 billion tons of crude steel are produced in China each year, accounting for over half of global steel output. The Chinese steel industries—over 90% of them—use coal-based processes.

Chinese steel firms are making significant investments in new, coal-based steelmaking capacity. To put this in context, China’s approval of new steel capacity per year is twice that of the entire capacity of the German steel industry.

Like steelmaking, the manufacturing of cement is energy intensive, with coal accounting for up to 85% of the energy used in the process. China is the world's largest producer and consumer of cement. According to analysts, China consumes as much cement every two years as the U.S. did over the entire 20th century. Cement production is projected to increase further in coming years, and high demand will possibly last for decades.