Domestic coal enterprises saw their profits surge in 2016, official data showed, and experts attributed the gains mainly to government efforts to limit coal output.
Data from the China National Coal Association showed that domestic coal enterprises had a total profit of 32 billion yuan ($4.65 billion) including government subsidies in 2016, up 363.7 percent year-on-year, according to a report by cailianpress.com on Monday.
Guan Dali, an analyst from the industry portal chem365.net, said that the government's regulations launched in March 2016, which limited domestic coal mines' working period to 276 days a year, did much to suppress coal production, which led to an increase in prices and a surge in coal companies' profits.
China produced more than 2.3 billion tons of raw coal in 2016, down 11.2 percent from the previous year, cailianpress.com noted.
The output of washed coal slid 5.67 percent year-on-year to 788.54 million tons in 2016.
Guan said that domestic coal producers' sharp profit increase in 2016 was because the coal industry was too weak in 2015.
But he also stressed that the government wouldn't want the coal price to fluctuate too much, and measures might be rolled out to adjust domestic coal output.
The nation's leading coal producers will meet on Tuesday to discuss measures to stabilize the sector, the Securities Daily newspaper reported on Monday.
China will continue to cut excess coal capacity, with an aim to close more than 500 obsolete mines and 50 million tons of coal capacity, according to a statement by the National Energy Administration on February 10.
