Coal news and updates

China May coal output jumps 13% on year amid govt push to boost supply

BEIJING, June 15 (Reuters) - China's daily coal output in May jumped 13% from a year earlier, statistics showed on Wednesday, as Beijing moved to increase production to ensure sufficient energy supply.

China, the world's top coal producer, mined 367.83 million tonnes of the fuel in May, equivalent to 11.87 million tonnes a day, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.

This was up from 10.53 million tonnes a day a year before, but down from 12.09 million tonnes a day in April, and below March's record of 12.77 million tonnes a day.

Production over January-May was 1.81 billion tonnes, 10.4% higher than in the same five-month period last year, according to the data.

The government aims to boost daily coal output above 12.6 million tonnes and build a national inventory of 620 million tonnes to guarantee supply. It has urged coal miners to step up production and has taken measures to stabilise prices of domestic coal.

Despite rising coal production, demand from industry and power plants remained flat in May, amid weeks-long lockdowns and shutdowns of many types of factories and businesses due to COVID-19 curbs.

May power generation fell 3.3%, with thermal power output dropping 10.9% from a year before, according to the statistics data. (Reporting by Hallie Gu and Dominique Patton; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Richard Pullin)