Global thermal coal market to grow 5 percent in 2018 - Noble analyst

GOA, India (Reuters) - The global thermal coal market will grow by about 48 million tonnes this year, 5 percent more than last year, the chief coal analyst at Noble Resources said on Tuesday, adding that imports to India will rise after falling in the last two years.

"Current seaborne volumes require imports from swing suppliers, such as the United States," Rodrigo Echeverri, the head of hard commodities research at Noble, told the Coaltrans India conference in Goa.

Coal demand in major coal consuming countries rose and prices gained in 2017, after a downturn spanning over half a decade put many small thermal coal producers out of business.

(Reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan; Writing by Krishna N. Das; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)