China plans to cap its national coal output at no higher than 3.9 billion mt/year in 2020, compared with an estimated coal output of 3.3 billion mt in 2016, according to the 13th Five-Year development plan for the coal industry released on the website of the National Development and Reform Commission on December 30, 2016.
To that end, China will eliminate about 800 million mt/year of inefficient coal mining capacity in exchange for about 500 million mt/year of advanced coal mining capacity, according to the plan covering 2016-2020.
The total number of coal mines in China will stand at about 6,000 by the end of 2020.
Of that, coal mines with a mining capacity of at least 1.2 million mt/year will account for over 80% and small mines with a mining capacity of no higher than 300,000 mt/year will represent less than 10%.
As a result, combined coal output of big coal mining bases will account for over 95% of China's national total, the development plan said.
Currently, there are 5,930 legally registered coal mines with a combined coal mining capacity of 3.58 billion mt/year in China, according to figures released by China Coal Trade and Development Association in early December 2016.
For better industry consolidation, big coal miners, especially those in Shanxi province, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi province, and Xinjiang, will be encouraged to merge with each other to form conglomerates, according to the development plan.
Additionally, no new coal mining projects will be approved from 2016 to 2018, according to the development plan.
After 2018, only new coal mining projects with a mining capacity of at least 1.2 million mt/year may receive approval to be launched.
