Coal Is About to Lose Face in China

BHP, the world’s largest miner, is leaving the World Coal Association—but the sector’s real problem is in China

Now comfortably swaddled in new tariffs, American steel firms have had a good few weeks. But U.S. President Donald Trump’s other favorite industry hasn’t fared so well.

BHP, the world’s largest miner, last Thursday departed the coal industry’s lobbying group citing disagreements on climate change. Still, the most worrying recent development is in China, where the nation’s power plants—the world’s biggest buyers of thermal coal—are in dire financial straits.

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