China's coal consumption will peak in 2020 at about 4.7 billion tons, forecast Li Ruifeng, General Manager of the Coal Industry Planning and Design Research Institute on March 4.

Coal demand will grow by an average of 3.9 percent annually before 2020 and then decrease by about 0.43 percent annually, Li said.

He predicted that annual coal demand would drop to 4.56 billion tons in 2030.

Li advised coal producers to adjust investment strategies to cope with decreases in coal demand after 2020.

China's coal consumption witnessed a slower growth of 2.6 percent year on year to 3.61 billion tons in 2013, according to the China National Coal Association.