China's coal mining capacity is slated to be cut by 280 million mt/year by the end of 2016, Xinhua News Agency reported, quoting Xu Shaoshi, director of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
Xu was speaking at the Tianjin Summer Davos Forum on Sunday.
In the next five years ending in 2020, China will cut its coal mining capacity by 500 million mt/year, the report quoted Xu as saying. Additionally, another 250 million mt of coal mining capacity will be eliminated by means of industry restructuring.
Currently the combined mining capacity of China's operational coal mines is about 4.2 billion mt/year, while downstream coal demand is about 3.75 billion mt, according to Mao Xiaoling, an analyst with Beijing-based Dexin Yongming Consultation.
With the elimination of coal mining capacity, some 700,000 coal workers will have to be displaced by the end of 2016, Xu said. By the end of 2020, some 1.3 million coal workers will be relocated.
To help relocate redundant workers in the coal and steel sectors in the following five years, the central government in February earmarked an ad hoc fund of Yuan 100 billion.
China's steel industry is slated to cut production capacity by 100 million-150 million mt/year in the next five years, with about 500,000 steel workers to be relocated, the report quoted Xu as saying. By the end of 2016, some 180,000 steel workers will be relocated.
