China’s coalmines ordered to go full throttle

Chinese coalmines have been ­ordered to increase production by tens of millions of tonnes to ease a power crisis.

A coal-fired power plant in Hanchuan, Hubei province, China. Picture: Getty Images

Chinese coalmines have been ­ordered to increase production by tens of millions of tonnes before the end of the year as President Xi Jinping prioritises a power crisis over reducing Beijing’s dependence on fossil fuels.

Unrest is growing over a crippling power shortage that has prompted state-owned energy firms to limit supplies to millions of homes and businesses. The price of coal has surged to record highs as Shanxi, a mining region that accounts for about a third of the country’s coal, was hit by flooding.

The increased production at mines is likely to mean that China fails to meet its target of using coal for only 56 per cent of its energy needs. Last year coal accounted for 56.8 per cent of usage.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang convened a meeting last week of the National Energy Commission, telling suppliers that they must keep people warm during winter.

He indicated that reducing consumption and meeting climate change targets would have to “take into account the recent gaps in the supply and demand of electricity and coal”.

The power shortage and ­rationing of electricity has caused factories to halt assembly lines in the manufacturing hubs of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Guangdong provinces. In response, the energy bureau of Inner Mongolia, a coal-producing region in the country’s north, said it would allow 72 coalmines to increase their output by 98 million tonnes a year.

In Shanxi, the authorities have ordered 51 mines to produce an extra 21 million tonnes this year. Another 98 mines in the province will boost production capacities by another eight million tonnes, ­according to Jiemian News.

In the southwestern province of Yunnan, 119 mines will add ­another 64 million tonnes to ­capacity.

According to the Financial Times, China imported 32.9 million tonnes of coal last month, 76 per cent more than it did during the same month last year.

Further complicating access to coal supplies has been a trade war with Australia, with Beijing blocking imports last year after Canberra called for an investigation into the origins of the pandemic.

Despite this week’s decision to boost production, China had made some progress in reducing coal use. In 2019 the country shut down more than 450 “outdated” mines. This year the authorities have ­approved three coalmine projects, down from last year’s 23.

Mr Xi announced last month that China would not build new coal-fired power projects overseas, and this week the President said that China would accelerate its move towards renewables, promising more policies to hit the goals of peaking carbon use by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060.

He said the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases would “continuously push for adjustments in the industry structure and the energy structure”.

Last year cleaner energies such as natural gas, hydropower, ­nuclear power and wind power ­accounted for 24.3 per cent of the total energy consumption, up by one percentage point.

The Times