Germany’s imports of hard coal in 2021 could drop 18.6% year-on-year to 26.7 million tonnes, lobby group VDKi forecast on Friday, citing lower usage by steelmakers in the COVID-19 crisis and price competition with gas and renewables in power generation.
The coal importers group also published preliminary data for the past year. It said imports had dropped to 32.8 million tonnes in 2020, a 24% decline from 2019.