Column: Electric dreams turn into a nightmare for battery metals
A sector that was once racing to build new supply has been closing mines and deferring projects as low prices bite into the cost curve.
China’s top coal producers are accelerating a move into power generation as fuel prices drop and electrification takes center stage in China’s low-carbon transition.
Profits this year at miners such as China Shenhua Energy Co., the country’s biggest producer, and China Coal Energy Co., have come under pressure as the market has weakened. Nationwide mining expansions of recent years have left a glut of coal, and benchmark prices have fallen nearly 8% this year while mining profits across the industry have slumped 22%.
Shenhua cut coal production in the third quarter after promising earlier this year to shift investments away from mining. The firm added 305 megawatts of new generation capacity through September, the majority as solar panels.
Mining costs are rising because of aging deposits that demand deeper bores and increased maintenance to avoid accidents, Song Jinggang, Shenhua’s chief financial officer, said at a briefing on Friday. The firm is also taking the last “window of opportunity” to open new mines and thermal power plants by 2025, said Chairman Lv Zhiren, before political pressure kicks in to peak the nation’s coal consumption to meet President Xi Jinping’s climate targets.
Shenhua said earlier this year it would halve the budget at its coal unit, and cut its annual output target for this year. Although its state-owned parent firm, China Energy Investment Corp., is the country’s biggest thermal power plant operator, it has diversified its portfolio in recent years to overshoot its 2025 renewables targets and become the world’s largest operator of wind and solar plants, according to BloombergNEF.
State-owned China Coal Energy, the country’s fourth-largest miner, has also accelerated acquisitions and new construction of thermal power plants to hedge risks from its core mining business. The firm rose to become the nation’s sixth-biggest investor in thermal power last year, based on data compiled by industrial news outlet BJX.com.
Although more profitable than mining, the power sector is facing its own challenges. More competitive regional markets are embracing cheaper renewables, pushing down rates paid to generators. In the southern manufacturing hub of Guangdong, which is spearheading market liberalization reforms, nearly half of power suppliers could barely break even after rates fell below output costs, according to local press reports.
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