BEIJING: Coal output in China, the world’s largest coal producer, continued to decline in the first 10 months of 2015, as the impact of clean air and renewable energy policies began to weigh on the industry, official data showed yesterday.
China’s coal output fell 3.6 percent year on year to 3.05 billion tons in the January-October period, according to figures from the National Development and Reform Commission.
In the period, China imported 170 million tons of coal, down 29.9 percent year on year.
China’s coal industry has been cooling due to weaker demand in a softening economy and measures to reduce pollution.
China aims to bring its share of non-fossil energy to 15 percent by 2020 and 20 percent by 2030.
Coal takes up about 66 percent of China’s primary energy consumption, 35 percentage points above the world average.
