Additional 1.1-billion-ton coal production capacity expected

According to the latest data from the SAWS, China's coal industrial watchdog, the country's under-construction and extension projects will add 1.1 billion tons to existing coal production capacity, and its total coal production capacity will surpass 3.1 billion tons by 2010, 500 million tons more than the planned target.

The SAWS has warned that the overproduction capacity may hinder the healthy development of the coal industry in China.

With continuous economic booming, China's coal output jumped from 998 million tons in 2000 to 2.38 billion tons last year, with annual growth rate in investments in the coal industry more than 50%.

China closed over 8000 small coal mines in the past two years so as to improve coal mine safety and industrial concentration ratio. According to the national 11th-Five-Year Plan, the number of small coal mines will be reduced to 10,000, reducing over 380 million tons in coal production capacity; and the government stops granting license to any coal mine whose production capacity is less than 300,000 tons of coal.