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Coal prices in China double year-on-year

29 September 2021 18:10 (UTC +04:00)

Coal prices in China have doubled in September in comparison with 2020, APA reports citing TASS.

"By the end of September, the price of thermal coal had increased about twofold compared with the same period last year, exhausting the interest margin of the power plant operators as the electricity price is settled by the government. At the same time, the supply of hydropower and wind power decreases in winter and cannot fill the gap left by the reduction in thermal power," the newspaper wrote.

At the same time, energy supplies from hydroelectric power plants and wind power generators decrease with the onset of the cold season and cannot make up for the lack of thermal power, the newspaper noted.

According to the newspaper, "Since Northeast China mainly relies on coal-fired electricity, the influence of the aforementioned factors on the region is particularly obvious. And the storage of coal that will be used to stoke the public heating system of the region during the long and cold winter further aggravates the already tense supply-demand relations in the coal market. Moreover, Northeast China is earmarked to transmit power to Shandong province and North China where the demands for electricity outweigh local power generation capacity."