Mongolia: Coal output surges rises 49% y-o-y to record high in H1CY’26

• • Hard coal output rises 63% y-o-y, lignite production declines by 12%

• • China’s Mongolian coal imports rise 61%, lifting share in total to 27%

Mongolia’s output of coal and lignite totalled 60.96 million tonnes (mnt) in the first half of 2026, up 49% from the same period last year, Mysteel Global calculated based on monthly data from Mongolia’s National Statistical Office (NSO).

With its monthly production hovering at historical highs over January-June, Mongolia’s total H1 output of coal and lignite also set a record high for the period, Mysteel Global notes.

However, in its June bulletin, the NSO put the country’s H1 coal and lignite output even higher at 62.48 mnt, Mysteel Global notes. Among the total, hard coal (including coking and thermal coal grades) reached 57.43 mnt, up 62.8% on year. In contrast, lignite output dropped 11.6% on year to 5.05 mnt in H1, the data showed.

Surging output enabled Mongolia to export more coal during January-June to the benefit of China — the destination for almost all outbound Mongolian coal.

During H1, China received 59.82 mnt of Mongolian coal, up 60.7% from the import total during January-June last year, according to data from China’s General Administration of Customs (GACC), as Mysteel Global reported earlier this month.

As such, the share of Mongolian coal in China’s total H1 coal imports also grew to 26.5% from last year’s 16.8%, the GACC data show. This also pointed to China’s growing reliance on Mongolian coal as a major substitute to flatten out fluctuations in its domestic coal supplies, Mysteel Global notes.

Note: This article has been published in accordance with a content exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and BigMint.