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Message: FYI: China Shanxi To Freeze Coal Output Capacity Expansion -Assoc
China Shanxi To Freeze Coal Output Capacity Expansion -Assoc |
| Thursday March 19th, 2009 / 8h20 |
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| SHANGHAI -(Dow Jones)- China's major coal production base of northern Shanxi plans to freeze its coal output capacity by the end of this decade after several years of expansion, the province's coal industry administration said on its official news portal. The province will also by 2010 have more than 75% of its coal produced at large mines by lifting the average output capacity of the region's coal firms to at least three million metric tons a year, the administration added in the report dated March 17. It plans to establish 2-3 mega-sized coal groups with annual production capacities in excess of 100 million tons, and 3-5 large-sized coal firms with capacities of over 50 million tons, the industry body said. The number of coal mines in the province will also be further reduced to within 1,500 - around half the current level - by the end of next year, it added. Shanxi province produces around a quarter of China's coal, which last year totaled 2.62 billion tons. The administration's plans comprise its latest drive to cope with oversupply in the domestic market and to deal with less efficient and sometimes dangerous small coal mines. China's spot coal prices have almost halved from their peak in mid-July last year to CNY585-595 per ton due to sluggish demand from power plants and industrial users against the backdrop of the global economic slowdown. Moreover, analysts say China could face a coal surplus of more than 50 million tons this year. Beijing has long pledged to improve safety at its coal mines and last year closed more than 1,000 shafts that it considered unsafe. But a death toll of 3,200 people last year, while representing a 15% decline from 2007, means the country's coal mines remain the world's deadliest. Indeed, an accident in February at Shanxi's Tunlan coal mine killed at least 74 miners and again put mine safety in the spotlight. -Jing Yang contributed to this story, Dow Jones Newswires; (8621) 6120 1200; jing.yang@dowjones.com Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/access/al?... You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day. |
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| Thursday March 19th, 2009 / 8h20 | Source : Dowjones Business News |
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