BEIJING, Oct 18 (Reuters) – China’s coal output rose 4.4% year-on-year in September, statistics bureau data showed on Friday, after safety inspections launched earlier in the year ended and more coal-to-chemicals capacity came back online.
September’s output climbed to 414.46 million metric tons, from 396.55 million tons in August.
“Coal production in September continued to rise, benefiting mainly from an improvement in mine safety,” analysts at Galaxy Futures said.
Accidents and deaths in the coal mines of major producing province Shanxi fell by 42% and 40% respectively in the first half of the year because of increased safety inspections, according to the province’s mine safety administration. That enabled mines to resume production to meet stronger demand.
The province, which mined 29% of China’s coal in 2023, told miners to curb excess output as a safety measure earlier this year.
Output for the first nine months of the year was 3.48 billion tons, up 0.6% on the year, according to the revised government data.
Driving up coal use, thermal power generation, which in China is mostly fuelled with coal, rose 8.9% in September from a year earlier to 545.1 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), statistics bureau data showed on Friday.
Demand also grew in the industrial sector.
“Following the end of maintenance on some coal-based methanol, urea, PVC and other chemical capacity, the capacity utilisation rate has gradually increased,” the Galaxy Futures analysts said.
Galaxy Futures analysts forecast production increases through the rest of the year, leading to total 2024 output of 4.68 billion tons, which would be up by around 0.5% from last year’s record 4.66 billion tons.
Reporting by Colleen Howe; Editing by Sonali Paul
