As announced by the China Coal Industry Association, the overall profits of large scale coal enterprises in China declined in 2009, due to rising costs, the lower price of coal and the heavy tax burden.
In 2009, the raw coal output of the enterprises in question increased by 12.7 percent year on year, while sales of coal increased by 8.2 percent on a year-on-year basis. In spite of this, in 2009 China's large scale coal enterprises saw their overall aggregate profit decline to RMB 115.5 billion ($16.91 billion), down 5.73 percent year on year.