Coal news and updates

Shaanxi January-August coal output down 6.3% y-o-y

Northwestern China’s Shaanxi province, the country’s third largest coal mining base, produced 315.74 million tonnes of coal over January-August, down 6.33% from a year ago, said the Shaanxi Development and Reform Commission on September 18.

Among this, key state-owned mines – owned by the central and provincial governments – produced 152.78 million tonnes of coal, dipping 6.65% year on year, including 69.41 million tonnes from Shenhua Shendong Coal Group, down 9.94% on year.

Coal output of local mines stood at 162.96 million tonnes, dropping 6.05% from the year prior.

In August, coal output at Shaanxi declined 6.73% from the year before and down 10.56% from July to 47.02 million tonnes.

Total coal sales of the province stood at 307.65 million tonnes during the same period, falling 5.64% year on year, with August sales at 44.92 million tonnes, falling 8.14% on year and down 11.05% on month.

By the end of August, coal enterprises across the province held 3.68 million tonnes of coal, rising 15% on year and up 10.38% on month.

Coal stocks at power plants stood at 2.58 million tonnes by end-August, down 31.08% year on year but up 2.38% month on month, which was enough to last for 17 days of consumption, 1 day more than the end-July level.

In August, Shaanxi’s thermal coal price dropped a bit due to decreased utility buying amid cooling weather and restrained demand in Hebei during the Beijing military parade, with the weighted average price of 5,500 Kcal/kg NAR coal in Yulin down 9 yuan/t on month to 208.4 yuan/t, the commission said.

source: http://en.sxcoal.com