Coal transport: Overview

Unit trains, bulk ships and conveyors moving a heavy, cheap fuel

What this tile covers Moving coal by unit trains, bulk ships, barges, trucks, conveyors and slurry pipelines. Share of use 28% share of world energy carried (2024)

Share of world total energy supply (592 EJ in 2024, Energy Institute Statistical Review 2025, physical energy content) carried at least once by this mode; overlaps allowed, so shares do not add to 100 (calculated) Coal supplied 165.1 EJ in 2024; virtually all of it is moved from mine to user by rail, ship, barge, truck or conveyor, even at mine-mouth plants. About 1.5 billion tonnes were traded across borders in 2025 (IEA). Source: Statistical Review of World Energy 2025, Energy Institute.

Key facts

Form

Solid fuel

Included from the reference tables

Unit coal trains
Capesize and Panamax bulk carriers
Barges, trucks, conveyors and ropeways
Slurry pipelines

Linked to the material world

Tc Thermal coal

Also in Solid and nuclear fuels

FW Firewood and charcoal supply NFT Nuclear fuel transport

Explore paths from here

More on this tile in the tabs above: how it works, efficiency and losses, technology advances, value chain, geopolitics and regulation, unit economics, impact on the biosphere.