Metallurgical coal Price per kg (United States)

Metallurgical coal has moved little in the past month (+1.2%).

Over the past 12 months it has ranged from $0.14 to $0.16 per kg coal.

Over one year the price has changed +4.7%, and over five years −4.0%.

Metallurgical coal, also called coking coal, is coal used to make iron rather than electricity. Heated without air, it becomes coke, which fuels the blast furnace, strips the oxygen from iron ore and holds the furnace burden open so gas can pass through. Most of the world's steel is still made this way, so demand tracks blast-furnace output, above all in Asia.

Other uses

• Pulverised coal injection, which replaces part of the coke in blast furnaces
• Foundry coke for cast iron
• A reductant in ferroalloy and silicon production
• Carbon products and chemicals

Demand for metallurgical coal follows blast-furnace steel, not electricity, and is led by China and India. Supply is a quality market: only certain coals form strong coke, and Australian premium hard coking coal sets much of the seaborne price, so weather, mine problems or rail outages in Queensland move it quickly. Over the long term, the shift to scrap-based electric arc furnaces and to hydrogen-based ironmaking will erode demand, but the pace is slow.

What moves the price

• Blast-furnace steel output in China, India and the rest of Asia
• Australian supply disruptions, especially weather
• Chinese domestic coal output and import policy
• The pace of scrap and hydrogen steelmaking

Metallurgical coal prices swing harder than thermal coal when a steel upturn meets an Australian supply break. Queensland's floods in 2011, a cyclone in 2017, China's informal ban on Australian coal from 2020 and the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 each produced sharp spikes, with 2022 setting records for premium hard coking coal.

As of October 2026, the Stockatomics benchmark price is $0.15 per kg coal.

Australia is the largest seaborne exporter of metallurgical coal, followed by the United States, Canada, Russia and Mongolia. China is the largest producer and consumer, mining most of its own coal, while India is the fastest-growing importer.

Metallurgical coal was added to the US critical minerals list in 2025, and coking coal is on the EU critical raw materials list. Primary steel still depends on it, there is no coke-free route at scale for blast furnaces, and premium seaborne supply is concentrated in Australia.

Stockatomics publishes a monthly US benchmark price for metallurgical coal in US dollars per kg coal, reading as of October 2026. The figure is a price for metallurgical coal as traded, not for coke and not for power-station coal.

Converting the price

• Per tonne of coal: multiply the price per kg by 1,000