The first round of mergers and reorganization of coal enterprises in the eastern Chinese province of Henan has begun, affecting companies with annual outputs of between 150,000 mt and 300,000 mt.
The Henan provincial authorities have announced that they will support the major local coal enterprises in their efforts to merge with and reorganize smaller neighboring enterprises, while small coal companies, with annual outputs of less than 150,000 mt, will gradually have to quit the mining areas in the province. In addition, by the end of 2010, three large scale coal enterprises with outputs of 50 million mt are to be established in the province.