BEIJING (Reuters) -China’s coal output fell by 3% year-on-year in August, statistics bureau data showed on Monday, as curbs on production continued to weigh.
Output was 390.5 million metric tons, down from a year earlier but up from July’s 380.99 million tons, which was the lowest level for a month in over a year.
Mines have cut back production amid China’s “anti-involution” campaign aimed at reducing industrial overcapacity to support prices.
A raft of safety inspections launched in July across multiple provinces aimed to ensure mines were not producing more than their allotted capacity.
In August, at least one mine was closed temporarily out of concerns that an accident would look bad ahead of China’s early September military parade.
Shenhua Energy, a listed subsidiary of the country’s largest coal miner China Energy Investment Corp, forecast China’s coal production growth would slow and imports would continue to fall year-on-year in July-December, it said in its half-yearly report.
Despite the slowdown in July and August, a ramp-up in coal production in the first half of the year meant output in the first eight months was 3% higher than the year-earlier figure, at 3.17 billion metric tons, according to the data on Monday.
(Reporting by Colleen Howe; Editing by Sonali Paul)
