China: Coal output rises 4.4% y-o-y in Sep'24

• Coke, steel production recover after weak summer
  
  
• China remains world's top coal producer, consumer
  
  

Mysteel Global: China's output of all types of coal increased by a fast 4.4% y-o-y in September 2024 to reach 414.46 mnt, the highest level since April 2023, according to the latest release from China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on 18 October. The total was also higher by 4.5% from that recorded in August.

On a daily basis, coal production in September averaged about 13.82 mnt, above the August average of 12.79 mnt, according to the NBS data.

Additionally, over the first three quarters of 2024, China produced about 3.48 billion tonnes (bnt) of coal, up by a slight 0.6% y-o-y. China continues to be the world's top coal producer and consumer.

Moreover, demand for steam coal from power utilities remained solid last month, which encouraged domestic coal miners to extract more of the fuel to meet the firm electricity demand.

Thermal power generation, mostly through coal burning, reached 545.1 billion kilowatthours (kWh) in September, falling 11.4% from August but higher by 8.9% y-o-y. In contrast, hydropower generation slumped by 14.6% y-o-y to 119.9 billion kWh, the data showed.

After a prolonged weakness in summer, both the steel and coke production sectors finally recovered last month, as September and October are seasonally strong months for domestic steel consumption. Many blast furnace steel mills ramped up their production after clawing back more margins.

China produced about 39.32 mnt of coke in September, down by 5.3% y-o-y and 3.8% m-o-m, the NBS data showed. This brought total met coke output for the first nine months of this year to about 364.4 mnt, down 1.2% from the same period last year.

Chinese coking plants grappled with severe financial headwinds during the first half of September, and it was only after their financial conditions showed signs of recovery later in the month that a number of plants resumed scaling up production gradually.

Note: This article has been written in accordance with a content exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and BigMint.