China will increase its coal production capacity by 740 megatons per year during the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015), according to a coal industry development plan for the 2011-2015 period released by the National Energy Administration on March 22.

The country’s coal production capacity will rise to 4.1 gigatons by 2015, with annual coal output controlled at around 3.9 gigatons, an increase of 660 megatons from 2010.

China will rationally control the scale of coal production, and restructure the coal industry. A major part of the expected 3.9 gigatons of coal output in 2015 will be used for generating electricity and producing high-quality coke.

By 2015, the country will increase the selected rate of raw coal to over 65 percent, the degree of coal mining mechanization to over 75 percent, and the number of opencast mines each with an annual capacity of at least 10 megatons to 60. The 60 mines should have a total coal production capacity of more than 800 megatons a year.

Coal production will mainly depend on large and medium-sized mines. China plans to form 10 coal companies each with an annual capacity of 100 megatons and another 10 each with an annual capacity of 50 megatons by 2015. The 20 companies will account for more than 60 percent of the country’s total coal output.

The number of coal companies in the country will be limited to 4,000 through mergers and acquisitions, with an average annual coal output of more than 1 megatons.

Source:chinesestock