Coal output in China's Shanxi province rose 12.96% month on month and edged up 0.15% year on year to 81.43 million mt in October, reversing a three-month decline, latest Shanxi Coal Industry Administration data showed Wednesday.
The month-on-month rise exceeded market expectations: Industry watchers had expected output to be flat or up slightly from September given the central government's directives to cut production and prevailing weak demand.
State-owned mines produced 60.20 million mt, or 73.93% of the October total, up 10.22% from a year earlier and up 19.35% from September.
Local mines, or those owned by local governments and private operators, produced 21.24 million mt, down 20.46% year on year and down 1.89% from September.
Over January-October, the province produced 797.45 million mt of coal, up 2.14% year on year.
State-owned mines contributed 563.44 million mt or 70.66% of the total, up 3.13% year on year, and local mines 234.01 million mt, down 0.17%.
The province delivered 551.83 million mt of coal to other provinces in China over the 10-month period, up 9.74% year on year.
State-owned mines contributed 314.25 million mt or 56.95% of the 10-month total for deliveries, up 6% year on year, and local mines 237.58 million mt, up 15.11% from the year before.
Deliveries in October totaled 57.97 million mt, up 10.19% year on year and up 4.75% month on month.
Of this, 54.03% or 31.32 million mt was sourced from key state-owned mines, down 1.12% year on year and up 3.06% from September, and 26.65 million mt from local mines, up 27.31% year on year and up 6.81% from September.
Shanxi mines had 39.31 million mt of coal stockpiled at end October, up 1.4% from the month before and down 0.86% from the start of the year.
Fenwei Energy is a leading provider of coal market information in China.
