China’s September coal production jumped 12.3% from a year earlier to 390 million tonnes, official data showed on Monday, reaching record average daily levels as mines resumed operation after heavy rainfall in the summer months.
The average daily output was equivalent to 13 million tonnes, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, which compares to 11.95 million tonnes per day in August and 11.14 million tonnes per day a year earlier.
The previous daily peak was set in March when the country produced 12.77 million tonnes per day.
Monthly production in March, which has 31 days versus 30 in September, had reached 395.79 million tonnes.
Output during the January-September period was 3.32 billion tonnes, up 11.2% from the same period in 2021, the bureau’s data showed.
Coal mines in major coal mining regions of Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, and Shaanxi lifted their operating rates in September as outbreaks of covid were brought under control.
This month, coal production, especially at open-pit mines, and transportation was under tight control amid safety checks ahead of China’s Communist Party Congress that closed on Saturday.
Additionally, the major coal-transporting rail line connecting the mining hub Datong and the northern port of Qinhuangdao on Sept. 28 began 25 days of seasonal maintenance.
That is limiting coal shipments to end-users in southern China and also curbing production expansions at coal mines.
(By Muyu Xu and Dominique Patton; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Jamie Freed)
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