China has outlined a plan aiming to make its coal industry more efficient by continuing to reduce "outdated" production capacity while simultaneously raising capacity in major producing regions.
China's main economic planning agency NDRC said a batch of "outdated" mines should be shut permanently this year to reduce the number of coal mines to no more than 5,000. This will help raise production at major mines so that they account for more than 96 percent of national output this year.
The shutdowns will focus on provinces and regions that did not meet their targeted capacity cuts set out earlier in the 13th five-year economic planning period of 2016-2020. The NDRC urged these provinces to achieve their targets by the end of this year.
The push for some individual provinces to reduce coal capacity comes even though China had beaten its own schedule for achieving its national goal for capacity cuts set for 2016-2020. The country eliminated a total of 810 million t/yr of coal capacity early over 2016-2018 as part of a national strategy to address overcapacity.
