Singapore — China's use of thermal coal in its energy mix has fallen to below 60% in 2018, as the world's biggest coal consumer aims to raise its use of cleaner fuels, the country's National Bureau of Statistics said Thursday.

Total energy consumption in China increased 3.3% to 4.64 billion mt of standard coal equivalent in 2018, NBS said.

Coal accounted for 59% of China's energy mix last year, down from 60.4% in 2017, while combined consumption of natural gas, nuclear and renewables including hydropower accounted took up 22.1% of the energy mix, up from 20.8% in 2017.

Still, coal usage increased by 1% in absolute terms year on year, NBS said, without providing a figure.

In January, China's National Energy Administration said it expected the country's coal consumption to drop to 58.5% of the energy mix in 2019.

-- Hui Min Lee, hui.min.lee@spglobal.com

-- Edited by Irene Tang, newsdesk@spglobal.com