BEIJING: China plans to boost its capacity to store national coal reserves to around 600 million tonnes, approximately 15% of annual coal consumption, its state planner said on Friday.
The government’s deployable coal reserves capacity should be no less than 200 million tonnes, which could be directly dispatched by central and local government, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in a statement.
The remaining 400 million tonnes would be inventory built at companies, it said.
At present, China has capacity for government-deployable coal reserves of 100 million tonnes, with about 40 million tonnes of coal in its reserve bases.
The NDRC said on Thursday it would release more than 10 million tonnes of coal from
state reserves to ensure steady supply to the market ahead of peak summer demand.
China arranges 1 billion yuan ($155 million) of investment from the central government budget each year to support the construction of national reserve facilities, the NDRC said on Friday.
“In the next step, China will accelerate construction of more than 100 million tonnes reserve capacity, meanwhile increasing coal inventory at the reserve facilities,” it said.
The Chinese government has been urging coal mines to boost output and rein in hoarding at ports to ensure steady supplies to coal-fired power plants amid surging power demand.
The National Energy Administration said in a statement also issued on Friday that some power plants in northeastern China are facing the risk of shutting down due to coal shortages.
In June, the energy watchdog warned that operations at power plants in northwestern China were under pressure from insufficient coal supply and soaring coal prices.
China churned out 323.19 million tonnes of coal in June, down 5% from a year earlier and also down 1% from May.
The benchmark spot price for thermal coal in 5,500 kcal in northern China was 947 yuan per tonne as of Thursday, easing from as high as 995 yuan a tonne in late June.
Comments
Comments are closed.