Chinese coal-rich province closes, restructures 25 coal mines

TAIYUAN - Shanxi Province, which supplies about a quarter of China's coal, shut down or restructured 25 coal mines this year, cutting 23.25 million tonnes of coal production capacity.

The results surpassed the target of closing or restructuring 21 coal mines and reducing 20 million tonnes of production this year, set in August as part of a plan to cut overcapacity between 2016 and 2020, according to local land and resources authorities.

At the end of October, Shanxi's coal enterprises had inventories of 30.84 million tonnes, 4.91 million tonnes lower than a month previously.

In addition, the enterprises ended a 26-month run of losses in September.

China plans to cut coal capacity by about 500 million tonnes from 2016 to 2020.