China will cap annual coal production at 4.1 billion tons by the end of 2025
China's annual coal production will not exceed 4.1 billion tonnes by the end of the 14th five-year period (2021-2025) after rising 1.4% year-on-year to 3.9 billion tonnes for 2020, according to a report released by the China Coal Industry Association on Wednesday.
The report notes that by the end of 2025, the number of coal mines in the country will be reduced to approximately 4,000 from 4,700 at the end of 2020, with more than 1,000 of them being equipped with smart mining technologies.
Annual coal consumption will remain at about 4.2 billion tons by the end of 2025, the document says.
Mergers and acquisitions of industrial enterprises will move against the backdrop of efforts to decommission the backward production capacity in the coal industry over the next five years. Along with this, 10 super-large coal enterprises will be created, the annual production of each of which reaches 100 million tons, the report says.
The sector has made great efforts to reduce overcapacity in the past five years. According to the report, as of the end of 2020, about 5,500 coal mines were closed across the country, and backward production capacities of at least 1 billion tons were decommissioned annually during the 13th five-year plan (2016-2020).
Meanwhile, 1,200 large modern coal mines have been built in China, each with an annual production of 1.2 million tons or more. The volume of coal production from them occupies about 80% of the total indicator in the country, the report says.