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View all search resultsChina coal prices hit record high as floods add to supply woes
China, the world's largest coal consumer, has been grappling with a growing energy crisis brought on by shortages and record high prices for the fuel. The government has taken a range of steps to boost coal production and manage electricity demand at industrial plants, while power producers and other coal users have been ramping up imports.
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This photo taken on December 11, 2019 shows mining equipment on a mountain of rocks above the Datai coal mine in Mentougou, west of Beijing. Mentougou, one of China's oldest mining towns, has powered the capital for nearly 300 years but more than 270 coal mines in the area have been shut down over the past two decades as China scambles to cut carbon emissions and switch to renewables. (AFP/Greg Baker)
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hina's thermal coal prices surged to fresh record highs on Wednesday as recent floods in a key coal producing province worsened a supply crunch, just as new efforts by Beijing to liberalise power prices boosted demand from power generators.
China, the world's largest coal consumer, has been grappling with a growing energy crisis brought on by shortages and record high prices for the fuel. The government has taken a range of steps to boost coal production and manage electricity demand at industrial plants, while power producers and other coal users have been ramping up imports.
Local governments in top Chinese coal producing areas Shanxi and Inner Mongolia have ordered some 200 mines to boost output, but incessant rain flooded 60 mines in Shanxi. Four mines with a combined annual output capacity of 4.8 million tonnes remained shut, a Shanxi official told a press conference on Tuesday.
The most-active January Zhengzhou thermal coal futures touched a record high of 1,640 yuan ($254.44) per tonne in Wednesday trade, having surged almost three-fold year-to-date.
The rise in prices comes a day after Beijing announced it would allow power plants to charge https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-liberalise-thermal-power-pricing-tackle-energy-crisis-2021-10-12 commercial customers market-based prices for power, in a significant break from previous policy that allowed industry to lock in fixed-price power deals with suppliers.
The policy shift, which is expected to spur more coal-fired power generation, is the latest in a raft of measures designed to ease the power supply crunch that has forced several industry sectors in China to curb power use in recent weeks.
Despite the power constraints, data on Wednesday showed overall export growth from the world's second-largest economy unexpectedly accelerated in September, as solid global demand offset some of the pressures on factories from power shortages and other issues.
