Coal news and updates

China's 2023 coal output hits record high

BEIJING, Jan 17 (Reuters) - China's coal output reached a record high in 2023, data from the statistics bureau showed on Wednesday, amid an ongoing focus on energy security and a rise in demand after pandemic-related restrictions eased.

The world's biggest coal producer mined 4.66 billion metric tons of the fuel last year, up 2.9% from a year earlier, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

For December, output reached 414.31 million tons, nearly flat with November's 414 million tons and up 1.9% from the year-earlier level.

Advertisement · Scroll to continue

Daily output over the month was 13.36 million tons, slipping from November's record high daily average of 13.8 million tons.

The country's overall power generation, which is dominated by coal-fired plants, rose 8% year-on-year in December.

Analysts are predicting another modest coal production increase in 2024. The rate of growth has slowed over the past year, following an energy security push that drove a ramp-up of output beginning in 2021.