Publications

Survey of Energy Resources 2007

Coal Country Notes

China is a major force in world coal, standing in the front rank in terms of reserves, production and consumption. The levels of proved recoverable reserves (as at end-1990), originally provided by the Chinese WEC Member Committee for the 1992 Survey, have been retained for each successive edition; in billions of tonnes, they amount to: bituminous coal and anthracite 62.2; sub-bituminous coal 33.7 and lignite 18.6. The level of proved reserves retained for the present Survey implies a coal R/P ratio of 52, on the basis of 2005 production.

It is interesting to note that the same figure (114.5 billion tonnes) for total proved reserves was quoted at the 11th Session of the UN Committee on Sustainable Energy (Geneva, November 2001), in the context of an estimate of 988 billion tonnes for China's coal resources. This reference, in a paper co-authored by Professor Huang Shengchu, a vice-president of the China Coal Information Institute, indicates a degree of continuity in the official assessments of China's coal reserves and supports the retention of the level originally advised by the Chinese WEC Member Committee in 1991.

Information received in mid-2007 in a private communication from an expert Chinese source confirms a level of approximately 1 000 billion tonnes for China's 'demonstrated' or 'explored' reserves, including all grades from proved to prospective, on an in-situ basis.

Coal deposits have been located in most of China's regions but three-quarters of proved recoverable reserves are in the north and northwest, particularly in the provinces of Shanxi, Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia.

After more than 20 years of almost uninterrupted growth, China's coal production peaked at nearly 1.4 billion tonnes in 1996, followed by 4 years during which output was constrained by the closure of many small local mining operations. Annual output has followed a steep upward path since 2002 and reached a new peak in 2005. By far the greater part of output is of bituminous coal: lignite constitutes only about 3%.

The major coal-consuming sectors are power stations (including CHP), which accounted for 56% of total consumption in 2004, the iron and steel industry with a 17% share, and other industrial users with about 21%.

Coal exports have fallen back sharply in recent years, dropping from 95 million tonnes in 2003 to 87 million in 2004 and 72 in 2005: data for the first three quarters of 2006 indicate a continued decline.