Demand for coal in China will reach 2.2 billion tons by 2010 as the economy continues to race ahead, creating a major supply shortfall. Thats only 5 years away.
Wang Xianzheng, vice director of the State Administration of Work Safety, said supply would fall short of demand by 330 million tons. By way of comparison, Australia, the world's largest coal exporter only exports 200 million tons.
"The present size and scale of China's coal industry are far from being able to meet the country's future demand," Xinhua news agency quoted Wang as saying at a forum on China's energy strategy in Beijing. "Insufficient supply will continue to be a major problem."
China's mines produced 1.96 billion tons of coal last year but it was not enough to meet the demands of an economy that expanded 9.5 percent. As a result, blackouts were widespread in many parts of the country with output unable to match demand. According to Wang, only 1.2 billion tons was produced by mines that met the country's safety standards.
China relies on coal for 70 percent of its energy needs, leading many mine owners to disregard safety in order to meet demand with the result of hundreds of fatal mining accidents every year. The problem is almost certainly worse than this article says becuase the private operators will be maximizing production from the easiest to exploit seams and they will be limited. So over time coal becomes more difficult and expensive to produce. |