Statistics show that from January to February, the country's raw coal output was 370 million tons, an increase of 3.6% year-on-year. Coal exports were 5.180 million tons, down 41.6%; imports were 7.868 million tons, up 11.5%.
Due to weak coal demand, Qinhuangdao Port coal inventories continued to rise. Inventory at the end of February reached 7.67 million tons, an increase of 24.5% from the end of January. Qinhuangdao Port has a reference price of 5,500 kcal/ton of Shanxi Youhe Coal Co., Ltd., which is 550 to 565 yuan/ton, down by about 40 yuan/ton from the end of December last year.
This statistic also shows that the decline in power generation and electricity consumption in the country is gradually being curbed. From January to February, the output of power plants above designated size nationwide was 488.3 billion kWh, a year-on-year decrease of 3.7%, a decrease of 5.9 percentage points from November last year. In February, power generation increased by 5.9%. According to statistics from the China Power Industry Federation, from January to February, the electricity consumption of the entire society was 497.2 billion kWh, which was 5.2% lower than the same period of last year, and the decrease was 3.2% lower than last December. Among them, industrial electricity consumption was 347.7 billion kwh, which was a year-on-year decrease of 10.4%, and light and heavy industrial electricity consumption was down 10.6% and 10.4% year-on-year respectively.
National Coal: Falling demand for weak prices
The operation of the energy industry from January to February released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology shows that the nation's coal demand has been weak, prices have dropped, and coal in key ports is at a high level.