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China's top coal producing area tells miners to suppress overproduction

China's leading coalproducing area of Shanxi has actually purchased miners to curb overproduction, according to a notification this week from authorities in the northern province, sparking a rally in coking coal futures on Wednesday.

Coal miners in Shanxi were asked to lower output and carry out safety checks from March to May, according to the Feb. 19 notification by the provincial emergency situation management, mine security and energy bureaus. The province produces 29% of China's coal supply, consisting of thermal coal for power plants and coking coal, a crucial steelmaking active ingredient.

Brokerage China Futures said the order might decrease supply by a combined 5 million to 6 million metric tons for two significant producers, Shanxi Coal International Energy Group and Shanxi Luan Group. Authorities at the companies could not instantly be reached for comment.

The impact might not merely be restricted to the 2 business, and this is what the marketplace is worried about, China Futures experts wrote in a Wednesday note.

The most-actively traded coking coal futures contract on the Dalian Exchange, a benchmark for China, increased as much as 8% on expectations of tighter supply and ended the session up 6.19%, the greatest close given that Jan. 31.

The relocation is aimed in part at suppressing mine accidents arising from overproduction.

In the past a number of years most miners in China were running with complete capability and there were a great deal of little scale accidents, said Liu Shaoyi, a Xiamen-based coal trader.

Now overall domestic and global coal supply is sufficient, and Shanxi has sufficient time and space to manage the coal production safety problems that have actually happened in the past, without stimulating the extreme growth of coal rates.

The China Coal Industry Association said in late November that mishaps in 2023 had actually increased by 53% compared to all of 2022. The boost triggered a notice from China's cabinet that safety checks would be ramped up.

China's coal output increased to a record high of 4.66 billion heaps last year in the middle of a continuous focus on energy security, with around 1.36 billion heaps from Shanxi, according to statistics bureau data.

(source: Reuters)