Off the wire
• Benfica defeated 1-0 in 18th round of Portuguese league  • Xinhua Asia-Pacific news summary at 1000 GMT, Jan. 27  • U.S. remains biggest importer of Vietnamese seafood in 2014  • China levies consumption tax on batteries, paint  • 18 killed in Libya clashes despite ongoing peace talks  • European envoys' meeting with Nepalese activist sparks controversy  • Feature: Marathon, a growing fashion in Japan  • HK's total export up 0.6 pct in Dec. 2014  • Australia leads 2-0 over UAE in Asian Cup semifinal first half  • Philippine gov't warns of "warlordism" in Mindanao if peace process breaks down  
You are here: 　 Home

Shanxi halts colliery approval to tackle overcapacity

Xinhua, January 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

Shanxi Province in north China will approve no new coal mines for the next five years to tackle excess capacity.

In line with a guideline, published on Monday, for the next three years there will be a moratorium on upgrades to collieries with an annual capacity of under five million tonnes that intend to become open-cast mines.

Shanxi is China's major coal producer, but weak demand and constantly increasing supply has led to closure of many mines.

A mere 960 million tonnes of coal were produced in Shanxi in 2013, far below its production capacity of 1.36 billion tonnes, according to government figures. Endi