Coal is a kind of fossil fuel with the richest reserves and the widest distribution. It is not only a main fuel dispensable for industry, agriculture and residents' living, but also an important raw material for metallurgy, chemical, pharmaceutical, etc. It plays the leading role in China energy production and consumption structure. As one of the main energy resources early found and utilized by humankind, it will still occupy a significant position in China national economy in a long period in the future.

Coal Reserve Distribution in China (Unit: 100 million tons)
 

Currently, the number of coal manufacturers in China is huge. By the end of Feb. 2007, the number of China coal enterprises has reached 6455, and there are 1,300 counties and cities producing coal, of which 480 more major coal producing counties. The number of coal mines has amounted to 23,000. However, the concentricity of manufacturers is low. As for coal exploiting cost structure, wages and welfare share 43%, while equipments depreciation and maintenance only occupy 6%. The coal industry is a labor-intensive industry in terms of related data. In China labor market, the total supply exceeds the total demand, as a whole, the employment pressure is large, and the labor cost is low, so the industrial entry barriers are low, which fundamentally leads to the characteristics of low enterprise scale, large number of enterprises, and low industrial concentricity for the coal industry.

Enterprise Number Growth of China Coal Industry, 2003-2007

During Jan.-Aug. 2007, the economic operation of China coal industry kept good momentum. According to the data of State Development and Reform Commission, during Jan.-Aug. 2007, the output of raw coal was 1.509 billion tons and the sales of salable coal were 1.489 billion tons, up 8% and 10.3% respectively.

Production and Sales of Coal and Growth in China, Jan.-Aug. 2007 (Unit: Million tons)

Newly-increased Production Capacity of Coal in China, 2002-2008 ( Unit: Million tons)
 

As the basic energy resource of China, coal has a large number of downstream consumers. Divided by industry, its application industries include agriculture, secondary industry and the tertiary industry, of which the secondary industry is the main consumption field of coal. Coal is the "grain" of the secondary industry. The coal industry connects with a lot of other industries. As far as coal price system concerned, the previous double track system seriously weakened the coal pricing right, currently, the market-oriented price system is gradually taking shape under the guidance of the government.

2 Competition in China coal industry
2.1 Domestic competition
2.1.1 Large amount of manufacturers
2.1.2 Low industrial concentricity
2.2 International competitiveness

3 Industry price
3.1 Large number of connected industries
3.2 Coal price shifting from double track system to market-oriented pricing 

4 Polarization boosts industry assets input and overall listing of companies 
4.1 Large group strategy leads to polarization
4.2 Assets input and overall listing of companies will be gradually carried out

5 Industry policy research
5.1 Production capacity control intensified
5.2 Export policy research
5.3 Mining right policy research

6 China coal market trends, 2008
6.1 Supply and demand forecast of China coal industry, 2008
6.1.1 Coal demand will continue to grow, but the growth rate will drop
6.1.2 The production capacity will grow fast, the growth of transport capacity will slow down, and the bottleneck restriction will be intensified
6.1.3 Coal supply and demand will be balanced and average coal price will keep rising in 2008
6.2 Factors affecting the trends of China coal industry in 2008
6.2.1 Favorable factors supporting the operation of the coal market 
6.2.2 Factors restricting the increase of coal demand
6.2.3 China coal market trends forecast, 2008

7 Key coal companies
7.1 China Shenhua Energy Company Limited
7.2 Henan Shenhuo Coal Industry and Electricity Power Co., Ltd
7.3 Shanxi Xishan Coal and Electricity Power Co., Ltd
7.4 Yanzhou Coal Mining Co. Ltd