China produced 312.7 million tonnes of coal in September, down 2.2 percent from the same month last year, with miners still cutting output in response to a rapid fall in prices this year. Output over the first nine months of the year was 2.725 billion tonnes, down 4.3 percent from last year, according to data released on Monday by China's National Bureau of Statistics.
A decision to cut production by big state-owned miners like the Shenhua Group has done little so far to support prices. Thermal coal at the key port of Qinhuangdao in Hebei province fell 2.5 percent last week to 385 yuan ($60.57) per tonne, and is down 26.7 percent from the start of the year. A huge domestic surplus has also hurt imports, with September coal shipments down 16 percent on the year at 17.8 million tonnes.
Big coal-consuming downstream sectors have struggled to keep pace with the increase in supplies, with crude steel production falling 3 percent in September and down 2.1 percent in the first nine months of the year. Thermal power generation, which relies overwhelmingly on coal, also fell 3.6 percent in September to 314.6 billion kilowatt-hours and is down 2.2 percent over the first three quarters as a whole.
Cement production has also suffered as a result of the economic downturn and a collapse in the construction sector. Output fell 2.5 percent to 217.6 million tonnes in September, and is down 4.7 percent over the first nine months. Coking coal production used in steelmaking also fell 8.8 percent in September to 36.73 million tonnes, and is down 4.7 percent over the first three quarters as a whole.
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