China Continues to be a Net Importer of Coal

In the first half of this year, China continued to be a net importer of coal. Experts say this was partly because of changes in international coal prices. Meanwhile, coal continues to account for a large portion of energy consumption in China. Chen Zhe has the details.

If a country's value of imported products is greater than the value of its exports of the same product, the difference is known as the net import. In the first half of the year, China continued to be a net importer of coal.

Chen Yong, Director of the Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, believes that coal prices in the international market have been greatly affected by the global financial crisis.

"Suffering from the global financial crisis, international coal prices are lower than domestic coal prices. This has led many companies, especially those on the country's southeastern coast, to buy coal from the international market. "

Yue Fubin, Professor of Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Director of the Institute for China's Coal Economy, says part of the imported coal was from Chinese-owned coal mine in other countries.

"Some Chinese companies buy coal mines abroad. If the coal produced by these companies is transported to China, it is also considered imported coal."

Both Chen Yong and Yue Fubin say imported coal accounts for less than 5 percent of the amount of coal consumed annually in China. Professor Yue believes that in accordance with market mechanisms, the moderate import of coal is good for the country's domestic coal market.

"First, we can adjust the import volume according to our own needs, which reduces some negative impact on the domestic coal market. Second, we can regulate domestic coal prices in terms of international coal prices. Third, it helps to realize a sustainable development of coal."

Coal is mainly used in the production of electricity, iron and steel as well as chemicals. It accounts for nearly 70 percent of all energy consumption in China.

Chen Yong, Director of the Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, says China must improve its energy structure and reduce its dependency on coal.

"Energy consumption per unit of GDP is large in China. It demonstrates that we need to make a lot of improvements in technology. To reduce the dependence on coal, we are increasing the use of energy from other channels like wind and water."

China became a net importer of coal last year.

For CRI, I'm Chen Zhe.