Metallurgical coal

Overview

Metallurgical coal, also called coking coal, is bituminous coal of a quality suitable for making coke. It has more carbon and less sulfur, phosphorus and alkalis than the steam coal burned in power plants. Coke is made by heating coking coal to high temperature without air; in the blast furnace it acts both as the reducing agent for iron ore and as the support for the furnace charge.¹

That role makes coking coal hard to replace in primary steelmaking. About 70% of the world's steel is made by the blast furnace–basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) route, which uses roughly 780 kg of coal per tonne of crude steel. World crude steel output was 1,849 million t in 2025.²

The United States added metallurgical coal to its critical minerals list in November 2025, on the recommendation of the Department of Energy, citing its use in steel production.³ The European Commission's 2023 assessment, which formed the basis of the EU list, rated coking coal as critical.⁴

Where it comes from

Coking coal is a subset of hard coal and made up about 17% of world hard coal production in 2017, when output was about 1.08 billion t. China is by far the largest producer, followed by Australia, Russia and the United States.¹

• China52%
• Australia18%
• Russia8%
• United States6%
• Other countries16%

Shares of world coking coal production of about 1.08 billion t. Source: Study on the EU's list of Critical Raw Materials (2020): Factsheets on Critical Raw Materials

Averaged over 2016–2020, the Commission put the shares at China 53%, Australia 18%, Russia 9%, the United States 6%, India 4%, Canada 3% and Mongolia 2.5%.⁴

Only about a quarter of coking coal is traded internationally; the rest is used in the country where it is mined, mainly China and India. China exports little coking coal and imports significant amounts of high-quality grades. Australia is the largest exporter, with about 54% of world exports in 2017, followed by the United States, Canada, Mongolia and Russia.¹ World metallurgical coal trade rose by 21 million t to 368 million t in 2024; the IEA expected it to fall by 3% to 357 million t in 2025.⁵

Because exports come from a small number of mining regions, ports and rail lines, supply is exposed to weather and accidents. Floods and cyclones in Queensland, Australia, disrupted shipments in 2009, 2011 and 2017–18.¹

What it is used for

Steelmaking dominates. In the EU, 89% of coking coal is used to make coke for blast furnaces and another 6% in other iron and steel uses, with the remainder going to industrial and other energy uses and chemicals.⁴ By-products of coke ovens, such as tar and benzole, feed the chemical industry, and some are used to make carbon fibers.¹ The Commission also lists battery electrodes among its selected uses.⁴

Grades and forms

Coking coals vary widely in quality. Hard coking coal and premium hard coking coal are the grades most needed for high-quality coke, and not every coal deposit can supply them.¹

Trade and policy

The EU's import reliance for coking coal was 66% in the Commission's 2023 assessment. Its main sources were Poland (26%), Australia (24%), the United States (20%), Russia (8%), Canada (5%) and Czechia (5%).⁴ Hard coal mining in Germany ended in 2018, leaving Poland and Czechia as the only EU producers of coking coal.¹

Export measures have applied in producing countries: in 2017 China levied a 3% export tax on coking coal, Mongolia a 3% fiscal tax on exports of coking coal concentrates, and India restricted captive mining.¹

This section is factual background, not legal or trade-compliance advice.

Recycling and substitution

Coking coal is consumed in use and cannot be recycled.¹ No other material can fully replace coke in the blast furnace. Pulverized coal injection can replace part of it, but the industry has already reached the technical limits of that substitution.¹

The main alternatives bypass the blast furnace altogether. About 30% of steel is made in electric arc furnaces from scrap, direct reduced iron and electricity, and direct reduction of iron ore with natural gas, and in future hydrogen, avoids the blast furnace and emits less CO₂.²

Sources

1. Study on the EU's list of Critical Raw Materials (2020): Factsheets on Critical Raw Materials. European Commission, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

2. Steel facts (June 2026 update). World Steel Association, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩ ↩²

3. Final 2025 List of Critical Minerals (90 FR 50494). Federal Register, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩

4. Study on the Critical Raw Materials for the EU 2023 – Final Report. European Commission, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

5. Coal 2025: Trade. International Energy Agency, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩