The ongoing power crunch in China is likely to worsen as demand is expected to surge in the winter. At the same time, coal prices continue breaking fresh records on tight supply. Power producers cut output as they find it uneconomical to continue burning coal. As a result, power supplies to some factories were rationed, forcing them to slash or even suspend operations.
Beijing has ordered domestic miners to boost their output. However, the latest official statistics showed daily output was stagnant at just above 11.14 million tons from September to the second week of November. In addition, monthly output dropped from 335.24 million tons in August to 334.1 million tons in September.
Last month, the National Energy Administration (NEA) said electricity consumption rose 6.8% year-on-year in September and 12.9% for the January-September period. Rising power use also contributed to a rally in coal prices that hit another record of CNY1,829 yuan ($284.15) per ton on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange on Monday.
