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Message: China: Coal supply-demand balanced in Q1
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Source: http://english.people.com.cn/90001/9...
| 15:02, June 08, 2009 |
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Coal supply-demand balanced in first quarter
With the continued spread of the international financial crisis, coal output, transport and demand operated at a low level in the first quarter of 2009, with essentially balanced and slightly eased overall supply and demandThe price of coal picked up slightly in April, with a considerable decrease in port stockpile quantities. Raw coal output is rising, with supply essentially meeting demand Raw coal output quantities rose in the first four months of this year. Statistics from China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology revealed that the amount of raw coal produced across the country reached 827.80 million tons in the first four months, representing a year-on-year increase of 6.8 percent. In April alone, the output of raw coal rose by 7.9 percent year-on-year. However, the amount of coal transported still continued to drop. According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the amount of coal delivered via the railway network numbered 307 million tons in the first quarter, representing a year-on-year decrease of 8.5 percent and a 4.7 percent decrease from the fourth quarter of last year. Affected by seasonal factors such as winter heating, coal consumption in the first quarter of this year was slightly higher than that in the fourth quarter last year, but nonetheless it has been in a downward trend compared with the same period last year. The amount of coal consumed in the first quarter of this year stood at 674 million tons, representing an increase of 5.4 percent compared with the fourth quarter of last year, but a decrease of 4 percent year-on-year. Of that, the amount of coal used by the power generation industry numbered 378 million tons, representing an increase of 8.7 percent from the fourth quarter of last year, but a decrease of 8 percent year-on-year; the amount of coal used by the iron and steel industry totaled 109 million tons, representing an increase of 15.7 percent from the fourth quarter of last year and a rise of 2 percent year-on-year; while the amount of coal used by the building material industry totaled 70 million tons, representing a decline of 24.7 percent from the fourth quarter of last year, but an increase of 7.6 percent year-on-year. In the first four months of this year, the volume of China's coal exports dropped 36 percent to 9.34 million tons, while the amount of coal imported rose 55.7 percent to 22.75 million tons. Net coal imports stood at 6.21 million tons in the first quarter, with a 5.15 million-ton year-on-year increase in domestic coal supply and a 7.60 million-ton increase compared with the fourth quarter of last year. The amount of coal stockpiled at ports dropped significantly in April, while the price of coal was generally stable In the fourth quarter of last year, coal demand dropped noticeably, while coal output still maintained a fairly high level; as a result, the amount of coal stocked hit a historical high in November last year. Since last December, coal enterprises have applied a policy of planning production according to sales volume. Coal users have also voluntarily lowered their stocks. In the first quarter of this year, the entire society's coal stocks experienced a downtrend month by month. In light of the low demand, current coal stocks are still at a reasonable level, with some regions stocking slightly more. Statistics showed that at the end of April, Qinhuangdao Port had a coal reserve of 3.7 million tons, 1.6 million tons less than that at the end of March. During the first quarter of this year, the price of coal remained generally stable, in a general trend of decline. Different types of coal in different regions showed slightly rising or declining trends. During the same period, national large-scale enterprises' dressed coal extracted from the mines was priced at 452.2 yuan per ton on average, a year-on-year increase of 13.5 percent. The realized profit of large-scale coal enterprises declined compared to the same period last year. Excluding the two enterprises owned by the Central government, Shenhua Group and China National Coal Group Corp, the rate of decline remained at about 40 percent. In April, due to a decrease in demand from major coal-consuming industries such as the power industry, some large mines adopted measures to restrict production, leading to the slight recovery of coal prices. In addition, between January and March this year, a total of 26.1 billion yuan was injected into the coal mining, washing and dressing industries, with an increase of 47.5 percent year-on-year. In recent years, China has initiated a series of policies to increase expenditure in coal mine safety, resources, environment and change of production line. These policies are necessary to promote the sustainable development of the coal industry, but objectively speaking, they have also increased the tax burden of coal mines. Meanwhile, some local governments in coal production regions have successively established administrative charges including price regulation funds, compensation fees for water resources, collapse and green crops, which has further increased the burden shouldered by coal enterprises. By People's Daily Online |
Source: http://english.people.com.cn/90001/9...
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