In the current year, China’s coal market has seen a basically balanced situation between supply and demand, as stated by Wang Xianzheng, chairman of the China National Coal Association, at the opening ceremony of China’s annual coal trade fair held in Qinhuangdao on November 21-23. Citing data from China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Mr. Wang indicated that in the January-October period of this year, China’s coal output amounted to 2.853 billion mt, up 4.8 percent year on year, with net imports of coal reaching 220 million mt, rising by 12.8 percent year on year, while coal inventory in the Chinese market had decreased by 100 million mt year on year as of the end of October. According to preliminary calculations, China’s coal consumption in the January-October period totaled 3.26 billion mt, up 3.7 percent year on year, he said.
Mr. Wang also pointed out that the situation regarding industrial concentration in China’s coal industry has improved, with the top eight coal producers’ output accounting for 38.92 percent of national coal output in the January-September period this year, with the number of coal mines in China decreasing to less than 8,000, and with the combined coal outputs of Shanxi, Shaanxi, Inner-Mongolia and Ningxia accounting for 70.36 percent of national coal output.