China's five leading power-generating companies all saw losses in January, following full-year losses in 2008.

The companies are China Huaneng Group, China Datang Corp, China Guodian Corp, China Huadian Corp and China Power Investment Corp.

"We expect to see continuous losses in February," said Zhai Ruoyu, general manager of China Datang Corp.

The current coal price is still "too high" for power companies, said Zhai, who cited that as the main reason for the losses.

The five companies posted around 40 billion yuan of losses in 2008, and the country's coal-fired power generators saw losses of 70 billion yuan last year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

(China Daily March 6, 2009)