Lian Weiliang, deputy director of China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), has stated that the number of coal mines in China will be reduced from 10,800 units in 2015 to 7,000 units by the end of the current year, which means that the country's target for the elimination of outdated coal capacity for the 2016-20 period will be now completed by the end of 2018, much earlier than originally planned.
Initially, China expected to eliminate 500 million mt of outdated coal capacity in the 2016-20 period.