World has 118m metric tons of coal it doesn’t need

The seaborne coal market is heading into 2016 with the biggest glut in at least four years.

An oversupply of thermal coal, used for power, will total 118 million metric tons, almost triple what it was in 2013, as the appetite for the carbon-intensive fuel wanes in parts of Asia and Europe, a Bloomberg Intelligence report published yesterday showed.

Countries including China and India may also import less as they rely increasingly on their own domestic supplies, it said.