Coal Output of Inner Mongolia Reaches Nearly 240 Million Tons in First-Quarter 2012

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources China (Beijing, China)--The coal output of Inner Mongolia, the largest coal producer in China, reached 239.65 million metric tons in the first quarter of 2012, an increase of 32 million metric tons or 15.4% year over year, accounting for about 28% of the output in China. The output in March increased to 91.48 million metric tons, an increase of 15.28 million metric tons or 20.1% year over year, according to the Coal Industry Administration of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

While the output has continued its rapid growth, the safety situation in the first quarter has been much improved. In March 2012, deaths from coal mining in the Inner Mongolia Region were zero. From January to March 2012, the death rate per million metric tons was reduced to 0.008, according to the Coal Industry Administration.

Starting from the fourth quarter of 2011, because of the impact of multiple factors such as the global financial crisis and the European debt crisis, the growth in the Chinese economy has shown an obvious downward trend. Under such a situation, the growth of demand in the Chinese coal market has slowed.

Considering the market demand, the pressure on transportation capability, resource conservation and environmental issues, Inner Mongolia has set its target to control its coal output to within 1 billion metric tons in 2012 in order to improve the utilization rate of resources. In 2011, Inner Mongolia's coal output reached 979 million metric tons, an increase of 24.4%. This means that the growth of coal output in Inner Mongolia will probably be about 2% in 2012. Starting from 2011, Inner Mongolia kicked off a new round of mergers and reorganization among its coal enterprises. According to the planning, the number of coal enterprises in Inner Mongolia will be reduced to about 80 to 100 from the present 353, and all mining shafts with annual production less than 450,000 metric tons will be eliminated in 2013.

In the first two months of 2012, coal output in Inner Mongolia reached 147.94 million metric tons, an increase of 12.6% year over year. The growth was further expanded to 15.4% in the first quarter. Based on this tendency, the actual output might surpass the control target of 1 billion metric tons.

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