Coal production growth pressure on the stock

China Coal Association statistics show that in the first three quarters of this year, the country’s total coal consumption was about 3.02 billion tons, an increase of 2.8% year-on-year, and the growth rate dropped by 7.5 percentage points. The country's coal output reached 2.88 billion tons, an increase of 3.6% year-on-year; coal sales were 2.78 billion tons, an increase of 2.4% year-on-year.

Affected by the sluggish international coal market and falling prices, net coal imports have increased. In September of this year, China’s net import of coal was around 20 million tons; in the first three quarters, it accumulated net imports of about 200 million tons of coal, a year-on-year increase of 44%.

On the domestic level, coal shipments have fallen, and the coal market has been under pressure to digest inventory. In the first three quarters of the year, China's railways sent a total of 1.683 billion tons of coal, a year-on-year decrease of 0.1%. In the first eight months, China's major ports had shipped 410 million tons of coal, a year-on-year decrease of 6.4%. As of the end of September, the total social coal inventory was 287 million tons.

Statistics also show that in the first eight months of this year, the profits of 90 large coal companies fell by 14.5% year-on-year, of which 16 companies suffered losses and the loss reached 17.8%.