AI Analysis: Coal, monthly production and exports

Executive Summary

Statistics Canada's Table 25100046 tracks Canadian coal production and exports across 6 regions and 6 coal types from January 2008 to December 2025, comprising 36 unique time series and 2,879 reported data points. Over this 17-year period, Canada averaged 4,787 thousand tonnes of coal production per month, with exports representing approximately 57% of output at 2,752 thousand tonnes per month. The data shows no statistically significant outliers, suggesting consistent and stable reporting across the coal sector.

Key Findings

• Canada's monthly coal production averaged 4,787 thousand tonnes from 2008–2025, peaking at 6,319 thousand tonnes, while exports averaged 2,752 thousand tonnes — roughly 57% of total production.
• Total coal production is the most variable category, with values ranging from 338 to 6,319 thousand tonnes (mean: 2,893 thousand tonnes), reflecting its role as an aggregate of all coal types.
• Bituminous coal (all uses) shows nearly equal production and export averages (~2,131 vs. ~2,005 thousand tonnes per month), indicating that the vast majority of bituminous coal produced in Canada is exported.
• Lignite thermal coal is the most stable production category, with a standard deviation of just 110.5 and a narrow range of 517–1,085 thousand tonnes per month.
• Sub-bituminous thermal and lignite thermal coal appear only in production data and not in exports, suggesting these coal types are consumed domestically rather than traded internationally.
• Bituminous thermal coal records the lowest volumes of any category, with production and export means of just 255 and 222 thousand tonnes per month respectively.
• No statistically significant outliers were detected using a 2.5x IQR threshold across the full 17-year dataset, indicating consistent and reliable reporting in Canada's coal production and export records.