Chinese coal producers suffered heavy losses in the first half of this year due to oversupply and falling coal prices, according to the country's top economic planner Thursday.
Over 70 percent of the country's medium-sized and large coal companies suffered losses in H1 and total losses of those loss-making coal producers stood at 48.41 billion yuan (7.91 billion U.S. dollars), according to Lu Junling, a senior official with the National Development and Reform Commission.
Major coal producers as a whole made a profit of 20 billion yuan, equivalent to only 10.5 percent of their profit in the same period of 2012, according to the commission.
The coal market has been troubled by oversupply since 2012 and the situation is likely to continue in the second half as coal demand for electricity production and the steel and construction material sectors is expected to drop while coal production is still in its peak period, according to Guo Zhonghua, a researcher with China National Coal Association.
